Think about this nebulous idea you're calling "AI" as just another data structure, like a linked list or a queue, because that's all it is.
You're also conflating the two types of "AI", which pertain to philosophy (the question of whether or not it's possible to replicate a human mind on a computer), and engineering (using a neural network or a similar data structure to classify inputs into output categories). Imposing any sort of "consciousness" or other human characteristics like "intelligence" or "understanding" on the latter application will get you laughed at by anybody who knows what he/she is talking about, because it's sensationalist nonsense.
