> And yet Google's Go-playing approach still doesn't seem to involve fundamentally novel techniques.

So? The fact that it is worth a damn at playing go was unexpected to most people afaict. What do you mean "fundamentally novel", are you expecting the field to advance from cars that barely avoid accidents, to Ava in one fell swoop?

Frankly I would prefer that advancement in AI not occur in sudden unexpected bursts of progress, thanks.