Understanding of reality comes in many forms.

We don't see in UV or infrared, but some birds do.

On the other hand, AI can understand reality in ways we individually can't: It has combined access to unlimited knowledge of math, physics and chemistry that at this point no single human possesses. Maybe it understands reality better than any single human at this point.

Also we're seeing AI reason from first principles in order to simulate physics and get to that real world understanding without directly interacting with it.