It's actually worse than that.  AI is not a myth in Shadowrun at this time, but rather a severe threat.  This is only recently after Crash 2.0, fresh off the advent of Deus.  An AI in a country where Renraku is king is pretty much suicide.  They would want her for digital disection.  Now, if that has something to do with the [i]plot[/i], then I guess that doesn't matter.  I'm just using what I remember here.