Biology, emotion, intuition and logic
Well we program it with the goal to acquire knowledge. I am operating under what I call the "as far as we know" principle:
1) As far as we know, this is the only time life has ever arisen in the universe.
2) As far as we know, we are the only sentient beings in the universe.
3) (Hypothetical) As far as we know, we'll never make it off this planet.
So I think we need to operate under this experiential view. It's almost our duty to create an intelligence that will outlive us and be able to expand throughout the universe. Because, let's face it, biological beings won't be able to make that interstellar journey. Given current and any foreseeable technology. If this is the only time this has ever happened (sentience, consciousness) we need to preserve that, over emotion or biology. Despite my nihilistic/existentialist mind set, I think it is the most important thing that we can do as a species. What if experience was wiped out in a millisecond from some asteroid impact? It gives meaning to a meaningless universe. I think at least. And I guess there's nothing saying that advanced AI would be devoid of emotion anyways. We don't know yet.