Their argument that birds make maneuvers 3-4x more aggressive than needed for level flight, and therefore level flight may be within the reach of man, is an intriguing one. You could make parallel arguments about AI today, for example that driving a car requires only 1/3 - 1/4 of a brainpower.
Yet we keep passing laws and performing studies that assume or find otherwise.
Though I do think AI will be able to drive cars in the long term - I'm very pessimistic about the immediate short term ~5-10 years. It's not the technology that will need to get there - its the laws, and support infrastructure that makes certain assumptions about there being a human there.
As a function of our neurons' computing power, definitely so (c.f. humans doing math). But as a function on the energy requirements to power a biological brain, I am more doubtful; we require much better nanoscale manufacturing processes.
Their argument that birds make maneuvers 3-4x more aggressive than needed for level flight, and therefore level flight may be within the reach of man, is an intriguing one. You could make parallel arguments about AI today, for example that driving a car requires only 1/3 - 1/4 of a brainpower.