The author even beats the dead horse of AI being a potential existential threat.
How else would a network make a final decision? If it never discarded any information, it would be just as heterogeneous of a dataset as when it started. It would be as if a linear regression algorithm "fit" a dataset by connecting the dots, except even more useless.
I truly don't understand what this "new" theory is trying to say.
Either the journalist compressed the information a bit too much and lost the essential amazing insight. Or it's just not amazing.
The actual talk is pretty technical and sophisticated. The conclusion is not just that neural networks discard information; it's a rigorous derivation of exactly how they do so.
Yes, it might be common sense (to some). But the talk is a very lucid presentation, and also very technical. Definitely not a "water is wet" scenario.