Bird and airplane argument(ill call this BAA): First, the airplane mimics the bird. After that, the airplane can fly much faster and higher than any birds can do. Therefore, exact mimicking of the biological object is not necessary to exceed them.

BAA works in airplane because of different objective. bird should catch bugs and can use the wind to be energy efficient, while airplane should be fast and big. And those two not only differs in objective, but in physical law.(fluid dynamics)

However to get to the AGI, the objective should be exactly same as biological intelligence. (Not ML, just look what GAN can do) And if what humans want to create is exactly same as existing thing, it is plausible that we should study it to get to the AGI. And i believe studying brain is the fastest way to get to the AGI.

Change my mind.