Now, this could be interpreted in a couple of different ways, but the way I understand it, the Machines were the ones who developed "new and better AI." With the anti-Machine sentiment as it was at that time in the Matrix history (following the murder trial of B1-66ER), I cannot see any humans helping the Machines to develop better AI. Further, it says a few seconds later, "All industries concentrate in 01" (with "household electric appliances, automotive, computer, medical" listed underneath), so it seems that humans have gotten out of the manufacturing sector altogether.
Based on this interpretation of events, it is my contention that AIs creating "new and better AI" is impossible. The reason is that it would be impossible for an AI to improve itself beyond the sum of its experiences. Even if the experiences of every AI were combined, it still would not be able to develop beyond the sum of them.
yes but a team of humans could produce an AI that was more intelligant than any member of the team withou being more intelligent that the team as a whole. if this AI is replicated several times each can study a differant area and there experiances can make an AI greater in ability (especialy as the programs can combine with each other in a powerful enough computer) than the first. with repetition the increase in ability is quite increadable