It is going to happen, but nobody can tell you when it is going to happen. Suggestions range from 'in a couple years' to 40 years or a couple hundred years. Nobody knows for sure.

Why is it going to happen?

We already have tons of weak artificial intelligence (or what I would like to call: complex algorithms). This type of artificial intelligence only knows how to do one type of thing, but with greater results than any human could produce. Examples: Chess AI, ChatGPT, Googles AI, Apples Siri, Amazons Alexa, etc. They excel at what they were designed for, but are completly useless in other applications. We havent created a general purpose artificial intelligence yet (strong artificial intelligence), because it is a highly complex task. But it shouldn't stop us from doing it.

Imagine an artificial intelligence so intelligent and efficient, that it can do more research in a couple weeks than 100000 years worth of human research would ever discover. It is going to drastically change our collective lives.