People were saying this in the seventies before the long AI winter.

It's always just around the corner, and has been since the dawn of AI. Maybe we will get there some day (I never say never), but cautious realism has never been the AI field's strong suit.

Indeed, it's that lake we can see and certainly reach if only we can make it just a little farther into the AI desert.

Old Soviet joke:

Radio Yerevan was asked: We are told that communism is already seen at the horizon. Then, what is a horizon?

Answer: A horizon is an imaginary line which moves away each time you approach it.

There's an emotional component to art, and I don't see nearly as much work on artificial emotions as I do on task-oriented artificial intelligence.

A lot of people are working to create a car smart enough to drive humans anywhere. How many people are working to create a car smart enough to refuse to drive because it's feeling inspired to write music instead?

Faking emotions is much easier than faking rational thought. People interpret any behavior as emotion-based, even with obviously non-sentient objects.

No matter how fast you run for the horizon, it stays well out of reach.

And how long exactly is that horizon?

I'd say these things are also 'way in the future'.