Will AI ever = conciousness or sentience?

[jonb]

As a very old man who has been banging the rocks together for a long while, I has seen some predictions come true, other things appear which we had no notion of, and things which definitely would happen in the next couple of weeks never come about. That said I don't see any problem with one day self aware intelligence being manufactured, but I feel it is more of a software problem to produce it than a hardware problem, and what would be the point? It would be expensive and there are plenty of sentient beings laying about now that could be put to good use far more cost efectively, on the other hand I LOVE Bender!