they require a massive dataset to do so. much much much more than an individual person's playthrough

They actually suck at learning compared to us, in some ways. If I show you a car, and tell you, only once "this is a car" you will start recognizing other cars, of different sizes, colors and models, from any orientation.

Meanwhile, look at something like tesla cars. they have been gathering data for years, and the ai still has issues recognizing cars sometimes.