Those things have been called AI long before 2022. In university I took a course whose name translates to "introduction to artificial intelligence" and while I don't remember a lot about it, I do remember that one of the things we learned about there was neural networks.

I didn't read it as snarky, I more got the impression that he prefers to be technically correct (in good faith, while also probably being tired of the bullshit). And I get the disconnect--people might expect a straight-forward "no-AI" policy, where everyone currently understands what that means, but I can also understand his concern of being locked into something that may some day return to our more broad understanding of the word.

I have no idea if the author is on the spectrum or not, but as someone who likely is, I get the frustration and wanting to clarify. But maybe that's just me projecting.