Debates on AI ethics often chase the latest headlines while overlooking the field's deep philosophical and scientific roots. In this post, Paul Verschure responds to contemporary restatements of the foundational question "Does AI understand?" and links it to 200 years of discussion and analysis of machine intelligence to find a recalibration in the deep roots of this intellectual challenge. As an example of "ethics by design" he describes is own work in Distributed Adaptive Control of Mind and Brain and the development of autonomous moral decision-making. As the hype cycles churn, real progress in AI—and its ethics—requires humility, and a commitment to depth over hype.