I still find it confusing - was that a thing, historically, that the mere use of Common Lisp meant that the thing written in Common Lisp was considered "AI"? I thought it was a general-purpose, high-level language, that was sometimes used for projects which might be called Artificial Intelligence projects, depending on the whims of authors.

Or is something more specific being referred to?

Classical AI? Like what the Greeks used? Or are you referring to the post-Gothic renewal era?