Earlier quoted context omitted.
But intelligence *is* being able to make predictions! That's the entire reason we evolved intelligence! (Not words, but the world around us, sure, but apparently language makes a pretty good map)
Prediction is a faction of cognition. There’s a theory of self, perception, sensory fusion, incremental learning, emotions, a world model, communication and a sense of consequences, desire for self preservation and advancement, self-analysis and reflection, goal setting, reward-driven behavior, and so many more aspects that are missing from “predict the next word.”
World model: This is what prediction is based on. That's what models are for.
Sense of consequences: prediction of those consequences, obviously.
Desire for self preservation: prediction; avoiding world states predicted to be detrimental to achieving one's goals.
Goal setting: prediction; predicting which subgoals steer the world towards achieving one's supergoal(s).
Reward-driven behavior: fundamentally interweaved with prediction. Not only is it all about predicting what behaviors are rewarded, the reward or lack thereof is then used to update the agent's model to make better predictions.
There's even a theory of cognition that all motor control is based on prediction: the brain first predicts a desired state of the world, and the nervous system then controls the muscles to fulfill that prediction!