I know how artificial neural networks work. To me, the fact that they're based on relatively simple maths is not that relevant. A lot of simple mechanism produce complex results (e.g. the relatively simple laws of physics have produced human brains).

Back to my point, your bar is pretty high. Artificial intelligence to the level you describe will basically be a "world as you know it is now obsolete" type discovery. It will likely go down as the most impactful discovery of all time. Most of us have a lower bar for what counts as impressive.