Embedding vectors assign semantic features to syntactical structures of the vector space. Operations on these syntactical structures allow the program to engage with semantic features of program state directly, leveraging the meaning of program state to alter its execution. Intelligence is leveraging information/experience to achieve one's ends. Manipulating meaning through embedding vectors in service to answering prompts is an example of that.

No true Scotsman is a vector database!

Intelligence is the ability to predict. To pretend that only we can do it, is silly. I mean read the article, and see what AI is doing to the math community.

I can't explain how the bunch of atoms inside my skull interact to produce me. If I can't explain that, I don't have a good grounding to explain why a bunch of atoms in a data center can't make something like me. That's my point.

Maybe you should define what "real intelligence" means, first.