Does Epic Speed Rules Apply to AI?

Just curious. I used to play Epic when I was playing as Prince or King. But have been playing standard on Emperor. I decided to start Epic again as I wanted my military units to be more relevant and last longer.

I understand the basics of the various speeds--how things take longer to build, and stuff like that.

But--does it apply to the AI?

For example--last night--the Chicken thing was built by turn 75. Usually I can build that by turn 90 on standard. Great Library was gone on turn 40 (which is usually standard speed).

Tonight--on turn 30--Arabia forward settled on me. How can Arabia get a settler by turn 30 on Epic? And Emperor level? I had only built a scout and just finished a shrine and was working on building a worker (as there were none to steal).

So I rage quit as I had a nice salt start and the spot I wanted (right near me which Arabia took) was also loaded with salt.

Also--does the game even recognize "legendary start" when on Epic. I keep finding myself rerolling the game for an hour or more because my "legendary" start consists of two freaking bananas and nothing else.

Oh--Mac version (Apple Store). No mods.

It should.
Legendary start also puts 3 copies of one luxury near your capital and 2 more kind of nearby. Sometimes your luxuries are out of sight from your starting spot because of jungle/forest/hill/whatever so it looks like you basically just got nothing.

Yes, it does, but AI gets bonuses to pretty much everything (including starting techs and production) on higher difficulties, hence the early wonders. I only play Vox Populi where the AI bonuses are more evenly spread, so I don't want to give you false info about the way these work in vanilla, but try googling AI bonuses on Emperor, there should be a nice spreadsheet somewhere here on CivFanatics.