To me that means an autonomous being that understands what it is.

A little thought experiment: How would you determine whether another human being understands what it is? What would that look like in a machine?

you called me a robot racist.

.....what?

Looking up the most common answer isn’t intelligence, there is no understanding of cause and effect going on inside the algorithm

In order for that to be true, the entire dataset would need to be contained within the LLM. Which it is not. If it were, a model wouldn't have to undergo training.

AI implies intelligence

You seem to be mistaking 'intelligence' for 'human-like intelligence'. This is not how AI is defined. AI can be dumber than a gnat, but if it's capable of making decisions based on stimulus without each set of stimulus and decision being directly coded into it, then it's AI. It's the difference between what is ACTUALLY called AI, and when a sci-fi show or novel talks about AI.