True Artificial Intelligence would bypass problems of biological complexity and ethics, growing up on a substrate ideal for initiating Recursive Self-Improvement. (fully reprogrammable, ultrafast, the AI's "natural habitat".) This Artificial Intelligence would be based upon:
1) our current understanding of the central algorithms of Intelligence,
2) our current knowledge of the brain, obtained through high-resolution fMRI and delicate Cognitive Science experiments, and
3) the kind of computing hardware available to AI designers.