I watch with great interest. Is this how general AI will happen? or is it more like heavier then air flight was: we will get there, we just need to understand the fundamentals of what makes AI better.
Of course, neural network modeling can still be of great use. Since we've more or less figured out how the brain does a variety of low-level processing tasks (like coordinating muscle movements, finding the visual depth and texture of observed surfaces, etc.), this knowledge can serve as a starting point for developing exciting technologies at increasingly faster speeds (robotics limbs, computer-guided navigation, etc.). Also, advanced neural networks can serve as rudimentary "existence proofs" for theories of mind and consciousness. For example, a theory that claims that our incredible computing power stems from a recurrent network of thalamo-cortical neurons is strengthened by a computer simulation that exhibits similar large-scale behavior in similar time scales under suitable parameters.
That last sentence is pretty qualified, for good reason. We shouldn't expect to write some code and discover a working brain, at least not until we figure out how it works to begin with.
There certainly seems to be a desire for some people to wake up these AI minds, and get them to help us out a bit ;)
I think our aim should be to simulate the R-Complex part of the triune brain model. This is where our evolutionary intelligence came from and it is the best basis to start. Birds have managed high levels of intelligence without the neocortex present in mammals, so obviously there's more than one route to sentience.
I believe brain density is the key to sentience. In a small animals, like birds, they lose heat quickly and efficiently, which means their 'processors' can pump out more heat without burning out. Where as a human brain would cook itself if it was 'overclocked' as we're at the upper limit of the communication-efficiency ratio, and Elephants are above that ratio but get away with large processing and data storage with a form of 'low-energy' brains.
With the speed of electricity in synapses, a Crow might be able to achive 10 times as many messages in the time it takes one of our brains to make 1 message. Elephants might only make .5 messages a second per synapse. So a crow would benefit greatly by increasing brain density and be able to solve problems to the same degree as a human infant, however humans have phenominal storage in our brains and a crow simply doesn't have the brain mass to compete so we have more data to act on than a crow. Elephants use their brains to remember pretty much everything, they've even been seen taking short cuts that they have 'guessed' between paths they've taken before.
I think the brain is astounding, but to reproduce sentience we should follow evolution; not only because it gives us vast insights into how our brains evolved, but also because it should avoid us ever getting into the irrational AI situation. If an AI is made from simulating a human brain then it is human, which it would be capable of understanding as it would have to be 'taught' and I know I'm human because of the society I know around me that teaches me that I think and act in a similar method as everyone else, just with different data.
:Well, that should teach you for asking why.
Perhaps we should stop saying tin-foil hat and say "ferrous material hat" ;)