There's already a lot of research happening for the next thing. The AGI race has been on among not only companies, but also between the largest nations. Everybody's doing their best and then some.
It could very well be that the highest intelligent functionalities requires a closely brain-like substrate. We don't know yet, but we'll get there eventually. And it is very likely to be something emergent, not specifically programmed features as you seem to be insinuating with "... checking [...] and storing results..."
Possibly. I personally think it's the type of data and scale that're the primary differentiators. The use of characters is a fundamental flaw because characters are synthetic entities. Instead the models should be based on raw sensory data types, such as pixels and waveforms, and iterate from there on something close to the existing architecture.
It could very well be that the highest intelligent functionalities requires a closely brain-like substrate. We don't know yet, but we'll get there eventually. And it is very likely to be something emergent, not specifically programmed features as you seem to be insinuating with "... checking [...] and storing results..."