I agree with you. Our current results are impressive enough for me to believe we're not that far from AGI (of the kind that would satisfy the author here). This article is already largely outdated because of advances in Reinforcement Learning and other Deep Learning applications that show very strong primordial features of what he claims as epitomes of human capability. For example, trained RL agents will recognize objects without being able to label them, having internal representations for position, object "type", functionality and relevance. You just have to train the agent with a problem that requires this kind of comprehension for efficient performance (kind of comprehension which isn't needed in simple image labeling).

AlphaGo and even labeling are indeed milestones in superhuman performance, and I believe Terence Tao's view that AI is a moving target is relevant here.

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1) Regarding the Fermi paradox, I haven't read too much technical or scientific work on it (it's highly speculative anyway), but I find Isaac Arthur's videos lay the basic ideas pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIva_60l3ww&t=1016s

It becomes pretty convincing that technological intelligent life is an incredible coincidence. There might not be any huge "filters", as they are called (stages which reduce the probability of observing TIL), such as a superintelligence extinction event, but an enormous sequence of minor filters, ranging from low probability of a planet with adequate conditions, to low probability of actual technological development, to low probability of occurrence in our light cone (we can only see fairly young distant galaxies), and limitations to the visibility and spreading velocity of such civilizations.

There is a wide range of parameters such that this does not contradict the generalized Mediocrity principle, such that there is probably more than one TIL in the universe, but they're few and far from each other in space and time.

2) I don't follow. This objection is only valid for discovering new laws of physics -- technological development can happen even with fixed knowledge of basic physical laws. At this stage it's not clear that even continued refinement of physical models. For example, the discovery of quarks certainly helped understanding nature, but it hasn't led to any direct technological applications due to quark confinement, and the fact that the particles are just too small. Neutrinos are another conceptually important discovery that doesn't really have applications due to low interactivity with matter.