Text compression isn't a deterministic process, unfortunately. It's "concept" of compression is clearly derived from token sampling, in the same way it's concept of "math" is based on guessing the number/token that comes next.

While I do agree that ChatGPT exhibits pattern-recognizing qualities, that's basically what it was built to do. I'm not arguing against emergent properties, just against emergent intelligence or even the idea of "understanding" in the first place.