@jackslate @greatninja3
I don't think that fits with that other researcher who's POV we follow in chapter 3 and who sees them and dies right before they can meet. Nor the corpse they find following a signal. I don't think the damage or growth necessarily looks like its been that long either, both in terms of overall growth and that researcher's age, but it's also possible the end of humanity has been somewhat drawn out and lingering with a lot of people dying early but a longer tail of those who survived onwards for a while. In that case it could have been a while since it hit but there was some (constantly diminishing) level of maintenance.
Doesn't seem like this is going full Talos Principle though bittersweet nonetheless, but her level of advancement certainly raises questions. We're still a ways off from full generalized human level AI, so if the author intended to play it somewhat straight there might be something more behind her existence.