In order for a machine to actually view the world like people or animals do, it relies on computer vision and image recognition. Computer vision is what powers a bar code scanner’s ability to “see” a bunch of stripes in a UPC. It’s also how Apple’s Face ID can tell whether a face its camera is looking at is yours. Basically, whenever a machine processes raw visual input such as a JPEG file or a camera feed it’s using computer vision to understand what it’s seeing.
An AI needs training just like children do. If you show a child a number or letter enough times, it’ll learn to recognize that number.