But it did do something faster than a human could have done.

That's enough to get a medal these days? ;-)

I don't claim that it invented physics: I claim that it quickly discovered the conserved quantities for a particular system albeit a system that was chosen in advance to be easy. But if I gave you the raw data that it had, and asked you to by hand write down a conserved quantity, you would take years.

Okay, sure, but as long as we're comparing feats from that baseline:

-Did the machine self-replicate?

-Did it defend itself against environmental threats?

-Did it find its own energy source?

-Did it persuade humans to grant it research funding?

Lest I be accused of being an AI goalpost mover, my point is just this: we don't all live by our own strength. Everyone, and every machine, can do at least some narrow task very well. The problem is when you equate that narrow task with the intelligence that was necessary to get to that narrow task.