Actually, the claim that “all ML models are doing is statistics” has proven to be a fallacy that dominated the field of AI for a long time.
See this video for instance, where Ilya (probably the #1 AI researcher in the world currently) explains how GPT is much more than statistics, it is more akin to “compression” and that can lead to intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI4Tpi48DlA (4.30 - 7.30)
Actually, the claim that “all ML models are doing is statistics” has proven to be a fallacy that dominated the field of AI for a long time.
See this video for instance, where Ilya (probably the #1 AI researcher in the world currently) explains how GPT is much more than statistics, it is more akin to “compression” and that can lead to intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI4Tpi48DlA (4.30 - 7.30)