Re: why surprised humans beat a handicapped AI ?
A quick search says that the average human response time is about 200 -250ms. So raising it to 200 for the AI isn't unreasonable.
Using your logic, why not lower the AIs time as close to zero as you can, so that they could be at their "best"?
Could you run as fast as a bullet (or faster), even if you were given a 99 meter head start? I mean why handicap the bullet?