I took a class with leading AI researcher Patrick Winston in the spring... it really is one of the most fascinating fields right now. If there is to truly be an "AI spring" then it will likely require massive collaboration between not just computer scientists, but researchers in a wide span of fields including neuroscientists, general biologists, psychologists, and even philosophers.

Free will and emotions are other assumption we would likely not give these machines, so the worry of self-interest may not exist either, which would aid in making it good at something useful for us.

The question is, is it even possible to mimic human intelligence without emotion or free will? Who is to say they aren't wholly dependent on one another?

And if any group of people finds out how to imbue a machine with free will, I'd bet my life they'll go through with it.