I've seen the same thing, and reported in it a couple of threads, this one for instance. I completely agree the AI should play by the same rules, and that was one of the great things about GC and GC2.
Bear in mind that in GC, the AI actually had a huge advantage over the player: no need to research to see which stars had planets. I also think GC2 AI had a similar view into where resources existed, but this one I can't really prove.
Compared to a civ game, GC AI was much more on par with a player, but it wasn't quite 100% there. Elemental, which is not only more like Civ (have to traverse terrain rather than just space), but also has strategic battles, is going to be a lot more difficult as far as AI goes. Sadly, I won't be surprised if this means a few more AI cheats than we're used to. I do expect it'll still be far better AI than we're used to in a game like MoM, HoMM, or AoW - but don't expect an incredible AI in 1.0.
[EDIT] - I don't believe the double-city situation should be expected as an AI cheat. Didn't mean to sound like I was defending that. Just saying that getting the AI built is going to be tougher than usual, and that it will probably be cheating a little more than we'd like - because we're somewhat spoiled 
