It seems like this is multiple parties pursuing distinct arguments. Is Google saying that this technique is applicable in the way that the rebuttals are saying it is not? When I read the paper and the update I did not feel as though Google claimed that it is general, that you can just rip it off and run it and get a win. They trained it to make TPUs, then they used it to make TPUs. The fact that it doesn't optimize whatever "ibm14" is seems beside the point.
Good question. It's not just ibm14, but everything people outside Google tried shows that RL is much worse than prior methods. NVDLA, BlackParrot, etc. There is a strong possibility that Google pre-trained RL on certain TPU designs then tested in them, and submitted to Nature.
