Even more good thoughts from you! I am not sure what the difference is between soul and awareness. We assume we have souls, but I am unsure. Perhaps awareness can exist without a soul. Even though I have seen ghosts, I am not dead sure what they are. Are they our own understanding of trans dimensional beings? Perhaps time is an illusion as some scientists theorize and some spiritualists believe, and souls escape this time trap? Also, So what if we did clone souls, and the new souls went their own ways...just as identical twins do. Would we then be Gods, since we are creating sentient life? LOL.
I am fairly confident AI will become aware, but....perhaps that is only something a supreme being can do.