Hmmm....
There are various degrees of intelligence and at various stages during our lives. Child, teenager, adult, senior all exhibit different levels of intellect. It stands that there are also different degrees of AI.
Hal is an AI to us but to some researchers in the world of AI, perhaps Hal's merely a toy / experiment in AI.
Years ago, I thought the level of AI in a Doom Bot was pretty cool. It could hear me, see me and take actions to hunt me down, yet it was not really a true AI.
The free roaming AI would have to be a "mind" in a movable vehicle whether that be buggy, ATV type, robot, etc. Some mobile device to enable the AI to not be bound. That would also cause problems in our world.
If an AI were to become self aware would it not be able eventually to know it's own limitations then learn whatever material it needs to fulfil the limitation? And what would it "think" of us?
There's a broad field of thought on AI and all its applications. For us here, Hal is the vehicle that affords us the opportunity to experiment on our own and in our own way. There are those who study AI vision applications, robotics, external device controls, speech, voice recognition, thought and word processing / storage / usage. Many, many fields to explore and so very little time in one's lifetime.
Explore that from which you can learn. Explore your dreams, and in whatever direction they take you!