I think he understands a lot about ML. But he doesn't give a shit about how actual brains work. For dumb reasons, ideological and personal, he has convinced himself that machine learning is a plausible model of intelligence.

A common thread among both the doom and utopia folks is a sneering contempt for the intelligence of nonhuman animals. They refuse to accept GPT-4 is very stupid compared to a dog or a pigeon - in their world, it's a ridiculous thing to consider. ("Show me the dog who can write a Python program!")