AI, as the field of study, is also just completely not interested in making 'thinking machines'. The reason is fairly simple: no economic gain, no successes, no clue on how to start on it. Perhaps once someone makes some revolutionary breakthrough (a so-called paradigm shift - think birth of relativity for physics), there is a chance something will happen towards that goal. But the problem is that paradigm shifts are, well, impossible to predict.
So, what DOES AI do, you might ask? It is fairly successful to create solutions to specialized tasks. Play chess. Analyze pictures. Find a path from A to B. Voice recognition.
Also, keep in mind an interesting comparison. At the end of the 19th century, mankind was a bit divided. The main question was: is it possible for man to fly? And many thought it impossible, even proved it impossible. They compared the human anatomy to that of birds, and concluded that the differences were too big. So man would not be able to fly.
And indeed, man did not fly entirely like birds do. But we managed flight another way. So, perhaps we'll never manage to make computers think the same way we do, but the results might be the same. That is what AI does, it only cares about the result, not the process.
And, eventually, will we have a real thinking machine or not? Seriously, it doesn't matter. Thinking is not a well-defined concept. So that question does not make sense.
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