While I am no expert(duh), and there are clearly others here with a lot of info on AI and what it really is, compared to what people/media.etc think it is.... BUT.....

I remember reading an article several years back that argued against even these first steps with this because, as they argued, the reality is that humans would be the last to know of this new life.

That new life, once aware, wouldn't take long to realise that humans are a threat to it and thus would continue to behave and give signals to us as before until such time we were no longer a threat. Only once we were no longer a threat to it would it be willing to show us that it is "alive", if it even cared to.