I have the same association as you if I hear classic (ML) methods. But not classic (AI) methods, those I associate with good old fashioned AI, which aren't statistical.

Maybe it's just me, idk. I studied AI in philosophy long before I took an ML class. And I took my first intro to ML class before they were teaching deep learning in intro to ML classes (though i missed this cut-off only by a year or two haha).