Is anyone on hn working on technology that is similar to a human (or even a rat) in it's ability to learn and form hypotheses? I've only known one or two people

Is anyone on hn working on technology that is similar to a human (or even a rat) in it's ability to learn and form hypotheses? I've only known one or two people who actually tried it, and it usually didn't last long. Personally I feel that most of the benefits that come from "strong ai" can be duplicated with basic statistical analysis. In the spirit of Peter Norvig's "more data beats better algorithms", I think we might all be better served by making an effort to gather and structure as much data about the world as possible. It's not as sexy as creating an artificial sentient being, but over time I think the results would be similar.