The arguments only apply to hand written programs and a particular flavor of AI (symbolicist AI) which has long fallen out of favor. They don't apply to most AI

The arguments only apply to hand written programs and a particular flavor of AI (symbolicist AI) which has long fallen out of favor. They don't apply to most AI agent today. They definitely do not apply to reinforcement learning, and probably do not apply to any neural network. It says nothing that differentiate RL agents from living organisms (maybe there really isn't much difference anyways). I can't help to point out the title really seems to suggest something the article is not claiming at all. In particular, it says nothing about whether most of today's AI agent approach can lead to agency and cognition.