> If a certain move shapes the opponent's remaining possible moves into a smaller subset, hasn't AlphaGo "looked ahead"?
You're confusing the reason why a move is good with how you can find that move. Yeah, a move is good due to how it shapes the opponent remaining moves, and this is also the reasoning we make in order to find that move, but it doesn't mean you can only find that move by doing that reasoning. You could have found that move just by randomly picking one, it's not very probably but it's possible. AIs just try to maximize such probability of picking a good move, meanwhile we try to find a reason a move is good. IMO it doesn't make sense to try to fit the way AI do this into our mental model, since the middle goal is fundamentally different.
You're confusing the reason why a move is good with how you can find that move. Yeah, a move is good due to how it shapes the opponent remaining moves, and this is also the reasoning we make in order to find that move, but it doesn't mean you can only find that move by doing that reasoning. You could have found that move just by randomly picking one, it's not very probably but it's possible. AIs just try to maximize such probability of picking a good move, meanwhile we try to find a reason a move is good. IMO it doesn't make sense to try to fit the way AI do this into our mental model, since the middle goal is fundamentally different.