[cs702]

In principle, yes, of course, because we use Turing machines for deep learning :-) but I think Hinton's point is much less broad than you imply: He believes "AGI" ultimately will be achieved with deep learning approaches, as opposed to other approaches, e.g., symbolic AI.

[bo1024]

Yes, but "quite a few conceptual breakthroughs" leaves a lot of room open for if it would be at all similar to deep learning today.

[cs702]

Agree :-)

Hinton's comment was meant as, and is, an educated guess, expressed as a belief -- much like expressing belief that P≠NP, say, or that string theory will prove to be a dead end in Physics.

FWIW, I happen to agree with Hinton, but only time will tell if we're right!