There is a vast difference between "Machine Learning" and "Artificial Intelligence". Right now nobody should be using the latter, because it's still a long ways off. It's true that we really can't see into the black boxes that comprise a neural net, but we do know what is in there, and it's very mundane I assure you. In his book "The Emperor's New Mind", Roger Penrose makes a very solid case for consciousness requiring a quantum-mechanical basis. WHEN we encounter electronic AI it will have an analog basis, and behavior that is much more subtle than can be found in the digital realm, no matter how complex.