Pure, shameless clickbait as usual from Smithsonian magazine.

> Although there is no direct evidence that the adaptation is linked to expanded octopus brainpower,

I.e. the entire connection between this mutation and octopus intelligence is made up. Not even a shred of justification.

Correlation does not imply causation and it's not even clear this qualifies as correlation.

I found the article very interesting. Not click bait at all.

I didn't realize that an octopuses brain was spread out all over its body.

I would imagine their intelligence is directly proportional to the so many degrees of freedom the arms have for grasping, but don't ask which one came first, chicken or egg?