>Machines cannot learn how to do something without clear, replicable examples

This whole thread is stupid, like OP hasn't been looking into this at all but wants to post some facts on it. "Machines cannot learn how to do something without clear, replicable examples": That's absolutely not true, and over the last 10 years or so some of the most interesting AI examples have been areas where AI's are given basic rules and then allowed to train themselves to find a solution in the most efficient way (or at least well enough to hit a goal, depending on the project).

Perhaps my favorite, but probably not the most well known, is where they loaded up simple small robots with a very basic AI that had had the goal of moving forward, but was not instructed on the best way to move its appendages properly. Each one would then try out all sorts of ways of moving until they ended up with something that worked. In the end, some used very normal looking methods of transportation while others used completely ridiculous looking modes of transportation, but they still got to the goal.

The rest of the bullet points in OP's post just look like shower thoughts.

I'm having a heck of a time pulling up the articles that covered the research on that project as it was probably 10 or more years ago, so if anyone has the links, please feel free to add. But there's all sorts of stuff out there. Another one is where a robot arm teaches itself to throw a ball at a target, starting off with some basic algorithms but learning from its mistakes each time. This is not the robot arm I was thinking of, but it's an example: Link

Edit: Sorry if I'm a little reactive on this one, but I've been following this stuff for years, and OP's post feels like it's from someone who hasn't looked into it at all.