What AI people are trying to do?

While thinking about AI, i was struck by two questions. Which i feel will decide whether we are going in right direction or not. Here are the questions that we need to answer.

1. Are we trying to produce programs that do the tasks the same way people do?
2. Are we attempting to produce programs that simply do the tasks in whatever way appears easiest?

Based on the answers to above questions we can think whether we are moving in right direction or not.

People are aware of "The Matrix" moview and its views on AI. If we try to produce programs that simply do the task in whatever way appears easiest then, there are chances that once the machines gain the intelligence of doing the tasks which is easier for them they may think that humans are obstacles to achieve the simple tasks and they can start destroying the humans.