Except this is explicitly not AI, nor is it even tangentially related to AI. This is a normal graphics algorithm, the kind you get from really smart people working on render-pipeline maths.
It's not a deep neural network, but it's a machine learning model. In very simple terms, it minimizes a loss from refining an estimated mesh—about as much machine learning as old-school KNN or SVM.
AI means nothing as a word; it is basically as descriptive as "smart" or "complicated". But yes, it's a very clever algorithm invented by clever people that is finding some nice applications.
Whether you agree with what it means or not, the word AI most definitely has a meaning today, moreso than ever, and that meaning is not what we (myself included, I have a masters in AI from the before-times) used to use it for. Today, AI exclusively refers to (extremely) large neural networks.
If that is the definition, then I agree; calling this AI would downplay how clever this algorithm really is.
But most marketing firms disagree. AI has now absorbed the terms "big data" and "algorithm" in many places. The new Ryzen AI processor, Apple intelligence, NVIDIA AI upscaling, and HP AI printer all refer to much smaller models or algorithms.
