the transcript clearly shows the card was played by an AI (was: Minh Le) on turn 7
That's actually a bug that it says they're AI. If you look at the very top of the turn, it says that Minh Le took back control from the AI. So that card was actually played by Minh Le, not an AI.
The AI currently doesn't know how to play airlift cards and will never play one. Also, an AI will never play cards at all when it's teamed up with a human, since it assumes the human knows how to use them more effectively. The only exception is if the AI is forced to use a card, but that rarely happens since usually the AI commits before the humans and only the last teammate to commit is forced to use cards.