Depends on your definition of general AI. I personally think it might be achieved by us without such a black box; that we could understand why it works though u

Depends on your definition of general AI. I personally think it might be achieved by us without such a black box; that we could understand why it works though unable to predict how it will behave exactly. As for human consciousness I wouldn't ever assume something we built is the same as it until we understand our own brains further.