I wonder how much he knows, interpreting it as a thermodynamic ensemble is just going back to thinking about probabilities really. Information field theory is something very different. The cheesy explanation for it is that it is just quantum field theory in imaginary time.
>it is just quantum field theory in imaginary time.
Quantum field theory is just thermodynamics in imaginary time, not sure why you object to calling it a thermodynamic ensemble. Besides, I could hardly introduce a subject as 'quantum field theory in imaginary time' now could I?