I don't think anyone defines AI as "doing the thing that biological brains do" though, we define it in terms of capabilities of the system.

I think if you gave it the same biological inputs as a biological brain you would quickly see the lack of capabilities in any man made system.

Okay, but does that help us reach any meaningful conclusions? For example, okay some AI system doesn't have the capabilities of an auditory cortex or somatosensory cortex. Is there a reason for me to think it needs that?

Name a creature on earth without one.

Imagine trying to limit, control, or explain a being without familiar cognitive structures.

Is there a reason to care about such unfamiliar modalities of cognition?

> Name a creature on earth without one.

Anything that doesn't have a spine, I'm pretty sure.

Also if we look at just auditory, tons of creatures are deaf and don't need that.

> Imagine trying to limit, control, or explain a being without familiar cognitive structures.

I don't see why any of that that affects whether it's intelligent.

Agreed: Perhaps we aught to be studying cognition of creatures without spines before we claim to replicate or understand cognition of creatures with them.

Presumably they have some sort biological input processing or sensory inputs. They don't eat data.