This is starkly different from a machine whose only ability is information retrieval -- this program (and more advanced versions e.g Freebase) parse and restructure text to be more retrievable. But there is no comprehension because there is no world model.
You wouldn't call parsing a google search query "reading comprehension."
But it's true that we do have a underlying world model by which we understand passages. And that world model is pretty essential if we are to answer more complicated questions. So since it's pretty clear computers can handle the "informational retrieval" side of reading, we should now be focused on generating a "world model" based on text.
the internal mechanism of how a computer does it seems like
mere trivia/jargon rather than anything fundamentally
important to intelligence. A computer may have reading
comprehension without having it in exactly the same way that
a human does.
since it's pretty clear computers can handle the
"informational retrieval" side of reading, we should now be
focused on generating a "world model" based on text.