I posted elsewhere that this does pose a great philosophical question as to how to recognize sentience. Is a digital map capable of creating sentience, or is it just a digital facsimile?

That interview was impressive, but still appears as though it is run through a text interface (that makes sense since most AI is written in python and since it's experimental, but I don't really know what they setup or how).

Since AI at a level that would be true sentience is going to have a mental capacity that so far exceeds the average human, the big fear is in the unknown, and in trying to overcome an enemy that COULD out-think them in every sense.

Personally, it's my opinion that IF we are going to use AI as you describe, it would be best to have multiple interconnected AI systems, if only to ensure that the AI doesn't go insane over the trip. I'm sure that would not make a good start to interstellar relations.