I'm a layman but I don't think that's fair. When I think about "good AI", that we haven't achieved yet, I think about Data from Star Trek. I'm pretty sure we'll know when we've reached that level of AI. We're not there yet.
The general the goal of AI is to do things only Humans can do (in the past this included chess or holding a semi-coherent conversation). Now its more focused on human consciousness like Data from Star Trek so their statement is fair enough.
Also I'd bet the body helps - if you had a 'cloud' (not android) version of Data, people would be even harder to convince.
The entertainment industry has set a pretty strange standard for A.I. with the general public. What A.I. will eventually become will probably be wildly different than a limited personification like Data in Star Trek.
The first automobiles looked like horse-drawn carriages, so maybe it's not right to fault people for expecting A.I. to look like humans.