Language is a way of organizing intelligence. Seems to be something that fits particularly well with our brains.

But I've worked with people who have no language skills (born deaf/dumb -- and I'm pretty sure whatever understanding of language they had was so wildly different than mine that it is fair to call it something other than language) and who yet were plenty intelligent.

Also, I'd say lots of animals are intelligent, even if they can't use language.

What LLMs are doing is just something other than intelligence.