The Wright brothers studied bird flight extensively, and drew important ideas from birds. An aeronautical engineer today has the luxury of a more mature field,

The Wright brothers studied bird flight extensively, and drew important ideas from birds. An aeronautical engineer today has the luxury of a more mature field, and can probably afford to put less thought into bird flight. Despite the history and significant progress in AI we still don't know that much about what approach will result in the first strong AI, or even if it's possible to make one. In an important sense AI is more like aeronautical engineering in 1902 than aeronautical engineering today, so it's possible that better understanding of biology will result in an important innovation.