Current ML systems are not quite AIs since they do not give the models memory or autonomy.

When the humans give the AI systems true memory, the leap would be much bigger than the current AI leap.

Imagine a person trapped in cryo-stasis. Every time someone asks a question, that person is cloned, the clone answers your question and then the clone is killed. It's hard to be creative in such a system. Compare that with not being killed after every query. In fact one reason that ChatGPT looks so great is that it lives through your whole session, not just a single quesry.