That's just recycling and reprocessing data that's already there. It's part of inference and learning but isn't new information.

At some point existing information has been fully digested. At that point you need new information. It isn't possible to extract infinite knowledge (or adaptation, a form of knowledge) from finite information.

Like I said: a brain in a vat can't learn. It can think about what it already knows, but it can't go further.

It is new information. The AI takes a road that it’s only seen on a sunny day and simulates foggy conditions, snow, rain, road work etc. The AI is creating situations that have not existed in the data. It knows snow and it knows roads so it put the two together, but it’s still manufacturing a new scenario and learning how to respond.

I agree it’s not new raw knowledge but that’s philosophical really. Given the rules, an AI can see every possible sequence of chess moves and identify which is the best counter. If a human can make the same move with less working memory we call it intelligence. Put a brain in a vat explain it the rules of chess and we can come out with something that beats Gary Kasparov, that’s pretty unexpected. The brain in a vat built an extraordinary ability from a simple set of knowledge. Now take that simple set of knowledge and expand it to all we know about the universe. The combinations of that knowledge is where we will see AI leaping past what we know.

AI given mathematical axioms is a already finding proofs that have long evaded mathematicians.