I don't see why that's relevant, a video camera is just another instrument that records data, not essentially different from the detectors at the LHC, albeit completely un-optimized - which is necessary for this experiment to work.

If all the AI is seeing of the world is a digital image, then they are likely to mistake the digital image for the world.

As far as I know, the article claims that the AI has discovered new physical variables, yet the researchers are unsure as to what they are. For all we know, these variables are the distance of objects from the edge of the image frame.