The Chinese room is a thought experiment presented by the philosopher John Searle to challenge the claim that it is possible for a computer running a program to have a "mind" and "consciousness" in the same sense that people do, simply by virtue of running the right program. The experiment is intended to help refute a philosophical position that Searle named "strong AI":

"The appropriately programmed computer with the right inputs and outputs would thereby have a mind in exactly the same sense human beings have minds."