No, it is not artificial life, they synthesized life from that which already gave rise to life. This is an important distinction because what they did involves

No, it is not artificial life, they synthesized life from that which already gave rise to life. This is an important distinction because what they did involves growing and manipulating existing systems. It's no more artificial than a an animal which has been bred, this is just on the level of molecular genetics. If we ever transcend, creating human/"machine" interfaces will require such technology. No you won't jack in like Neo, no we won't download our souls and thoughts to a computer, synthetics will replace organics slowly. The computers and people will meet in the middle.