Information vs. Intelligence — What's the Difference?

What is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement of things.

The collection of information of strategic value.

Data as processed, stored, or transmitted by a computer.

A person or organization that gathers such information.

Factual data or knowledge about a subject.

The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

Knowledge acquired through study, experience, or instruction.

The output of applying analysis to information.

Details provided or learned about something or someone.

Information of military or political value.

Information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty; it answers the question of "What an entity is" and thus defines both its essence and the nature of its characteristics. The concept of information has different meanings in different contexts.

Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be described as the ability to perceive or infer information, and to retain it as knowledge to be applied towards adaptive behaviors within an environment or context.

Knowledge or facts learned, especially about a certain subject or event.

The ability to acquire, understand, and use knowledge

The act of informing or the condition of being informed; communication of knowledge

Information, especially secret information gathered about an actual or potential enemy or adversary.

(Computers) Processed, stored, or transmitted data.

The gathering of such information

A numerical measure of the uncertainty of an experimental outcome.

An agency or organization whose purpose is to gather such information

(Law) A formal accusation of a crime made by a public officer rather than by grand jury indictment in instances in which the offense, if a federal crime, is not a felony or in which the offense, if a state crime, is allowed prosecution in that manner rather than by indictment.

An intelligent, incorporeal being, especially an angel.

That which resolves uncertainty; anything that answers the question of "what a given entity is".

Of mind, especially to understand principles, truths, facts or meanings, acquire knowledge, and apply it to practice; the ability to comprehend and learn.

Things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something.

The quality of making use or having made use of such capacities: depth of understanding, mental quickness.

The act of informing or imparting knowledge; notification.

(countable) An entity that has such capacities.

A statement of criminal activity brought before a judge or magistrate; in the UK, used to inform a magistrate of an offence and request a warrant; in the US, an accusation brought before a judge without a grand jury indictment.

, often secret, about an enemy or about hostile activities.

(obsolete) The act of informing against someone, passing on incriminating knowledge; accusation.

(countable) A political or military department, agency or unit designed to gather information, usually secret, about the enemy or about hostile activities.

The systematic imparting of knowledge; education, training.

(dated) acquaintance; intercourse; familiarity.

The creation of form; the imparting of a given quality or characteristic; forming, animation.

The act or state of knowing; the exercise of the understanding.

[…] the meaning that a human assigns to data by means of the known conventions used in its representation.

The capacity to know or understand; readiness of comprehension; the intellect, as a gift or an endowment.

(Christianity) Divine inspiration.

Information communicated; news; notice; advice.

A service provided by telephone which provides listed telephone numbers of a subscriber.

Acquaintance; intercourse; familiarity.

(information theory) Any unambiguous abstract data, the smallest possible unit being the bit.

Knowledge imparted or acquired, whether by study, research, or experience; general information.

As contrasted with data, information is processed to extract relevant data.

An intelligent being or spirit; - generally applied to pure spirits; as, a created intelligence.

(information technology) Any ordered sequence of symbols (or signals) (that could contain a message).

The division within a military organization that gathers and evaluates information about an enemy.

The act of informing, or communicating knowledge or intelligence.

The ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience

Any fact or set of facts, knowledge, news, or advice, whether communicated by others or obtained by personal study and investigation; any datum that reduces uncertainty about the state of any part of the world; intelligence; knowledge derived from reading, observation, or instruction.

A unit responsible for gathering and interpreting information about an enemy

A proceeding in the nature of a prosecution for some offense against the government, instituted and prosecuted, really or nominally, by some authorized public officer on behalf of the government. It differs from an indictment in criminal cases chiefly in not being based on the finding of a grand jury. See Indictment.

Secret information about an enemy (or potential enemy);

A measure of the number of possible choices of messages contained in a symbol, signal, transmitted message, or other information-bearing object; it is usually quantified as the negative logarithm of the number of allowed symbols that could be contained in the message; for logarithms to the base 2, the measure corresponds to the unit of information, the hartley, which is log210, or 3.323 bits; called also information content. The smallest unit of information that can be contained or transmitted is the bit, corresponding to a yes-or-no decision.

New information about specific and timely events;

Useful facts, as contrasted with raw data; as, among all this data, there must be some interesting information.

The operation of gathering information about an enemy

A message received and understood

A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn;

Knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction

(communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome;

Formal accusation of a crime

Yes, information can exist as raw data without being analyzed.

Typically, yes, because intelligence provides the insight needed for decision-making.

Strategic reports, forecasts, security briefings.

Analytical thinking, critical evaluation, and contextual understanding.

Information is raw data, whereas intelligence involves the interpretation and analysis of that data.

Through processes such as analysis, synthesis, and contextualization.

Businesses use information to maintain records and intelligence for strategic planning.

To understand the scope of data's applicability and its influence on decision-making.

Technology facilitates the processing of information and the generation of intelligence.

Statistics, facts, reports, and data sets.

It provides a researched, analyzed perspective that enhances decision accuracy.

By verifying the accuracy and relevance of the information used and the thoroughness of the analysis.

Yes, if the underlying information is incorrect or the analysis is biased.

In fields like security, military, and strategic business management.

Software for data analysis, AI, and expert systems.