I'm not Miky, but I interpreted his statement to be that doing AI is a whole heck of a lot more complicated than just using an introspective, code-as-data, data

I'm not Miky, but I interpreted his statement to be that doing AI is a whole heck of a lot more complicated than just using an introspective, code-as-data, data-as-code language. LISP is a hammer in an AI researcher's toolbox. Human-level AI is a monumental skyscraper undertaking. For sure, any construction team would be hard-pressed to build the Empire State Building without the proper tools, but there's a lot more to it than that.