Basically, it’s a calculator that can take letters, numbers, words, sentences, and so on as input.
And produce a mathematically “correct” sounding output, defined by language patterns in the training data.
This core concept is in most if not all “AI” models, not just LLMs, I think.
I think you’re right, but it takes more than an LLM to be intelligent. The LLM is one piece of the pie, though