That leads to the same outcome, just with engineered biology instead of machines. Literally anything which self-replicates and can survive in space will give you this result.
Btw, AI doesn't need to be possible if self-replicating machines are, as they can then evolve intelligence the same way we did instead of humans manually engineering it.
I like the engineered biology version better even if I do love Sonny and Baymax.
BTW I am rewatching Men in Black and I realized that I, Robot is a purposeful repeat of various elements that made MIB successful, which is actually kinda impressive considering the passage of time and the fact that I, Robot was based on a book.