Gary Marcus

It depends. Did the robot lawn mower decide to come and mow your lawn one day or did you mow the lawn with your robot mower.

Similar question: Does my teenage child (who never has any intention of mowing the lawn) mow the lawn, when I instruct him to do so? Does this mean that I am really the one who is mowing the lawn?

Are you saying your robot lawn mower has no intention of mowing the lawn either? Wait are you saying my robot lawn mower has intentions?

Not I. @NoelSharkey might have...insofar as he asked the question: "Did the robot lawn mower decide to come and mow your lawn?" As for teenagers, the jury is still out regarding intention when it comes to matters of household chores.

Pretty sure @NoelSharkey's ques was rhetorical & he doesnt think robot mowers have intentions. Your analogy is faulty by comparing one sys capable of intentions to another without it around an issue that concerns that very intentionality.

It may be perfectly sensible to describe a robot lawnmower as deciding to mow your lawn, if the robot lawnmower considered a variety of alternative possibilities first, and then chose one.

It doesn't cconsider. It follows the routine. Sensory input/perceive-categorize-on-the-background-of-the-training-data/NN >> act. It's Math, iterated, Dylan, plus energy ON/OFF to start mowing.

But it makes sense to describe the lawnmower in this way if it really does have a lot of options to choose between. Just like it makes sense to describe humans in this way, although of course humans too are just math, iterated, plus energy