You state this as if it's fact but it's a point of view, not necessarily wrong but not proven either. More to the point, it's circular: "intelligence is not int

You state this as if it's fact but it's a point of view, not necessarily wrong but not proven either. More to the point, it's circular: "intelligence is not intrinsic to the agent but the result of the agent trying to maximise rewards in an environment" is a statement that the human mind operates on the same principles as ML algorithms. If you assume this, then not surprisingly it follows that ML algorithms can in principle do anything the human mind can do. Not everybody agrees and the question has not been empirically settled.