I have a small kid now.. and this is exactly what they do: parrot. They parrot more as their source of parrot material expands. ChatGPT is an infant now. More parrot material can be provided.
I may be wrong, but if that is the case, and we are still arguing with appeal to authority, shouldn't he defer to experts in that field? Shouldn't AI experts opinion be valued more than his observation?
Note, I am merely raising a possibility that he is wrong about this particular idea.
More to the point, do you think his understanding of syntax really means he understands the underpinnings of AI; the same AI that merely tries to emulate human language capability?