Are gravity and spacetime really emergent in AdS-CFT?

There is an interesting Scientific American article by Adam Becker

What Is Spacetime Really Made Of?

Spacetime may emerge from a more fundamental reality. Figuring out how could unlock the most urgent goal in physics—a quantum theory of gravity

It considers two different approaches to quantum gravity (loop quantum gravity and AdS-CFT beloved by string theorists). Compared to some Scientific American articles it is moderately balanced and low on hype. The article has a nice engagement with some philosophers of physics. It is clear to me how loop quantum gravity has a natural interpretation that gravity and space-time are emergent. However, that is not clear for AdS-CFT.

 The following paragraph is pertinent.

But there are other ways to interpret the latest findings. The AdS/CFT correspondence is often seen as an example of how spacetime might emerge from a quantum system, but that might not actually be what it shows, according to Alyssa Ney, a philosopher of physics at the University of California, Davis. 
“AdS/CFT gives you this ability to provide a translation manual between facts about the spacetime and facts of the quantum theory,” Ney says. “That’s compatible with the claim that spacetime is emergent, and some quantum theory is fundamental.” 
But the reverse is also true, she says. The correspondence could mean that quantum theory is emergent and spacetime is fundamental—or that neither is fundamental and that there is some even deeper fundamental theory out there. Emergence is a strong claim to make, Ney says, and she is open to the possibility that it is true. “But at least just looking at AdS/CFT, I’m still not seeing a clear argument for emergence.”

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