"Oh, machine learning certainly is not real learning! It is a purely statistical process, but perhaps you need to take some linear algebra. Okay... Now watch this machine learn some theoretical physics!"
"Of course chain-of-thought is not analogous to real thought. Goodness me, it was a metaphor! Okay... now let's see what ChatGPT is really thinking!"
"Nobody is claiming that LLMs are provably intelligent. We are Serious Scientists. We have a responsibility. Okay... now let's prove this LLM is intelligent by having it take a Putnam exam!"
One day AI researchers will be as honest as other researchers. Until then, Demis Hassabis will continue to tell people that MuZero improves via self-play. (MuZero is not capable of play and never will be)