I don't think you understand. The AI doesn't "land" next to these resources, rather once they settle their first city these resources appear in addition to whatever was there before.

I stand corrected.  I'm assuming you switch to non-player, and watch the progress of the game accordingly.  You state you tested this on Challenging, which is where I'd expect to find it, since the AI receives bonuses, as stated up front.  But "it seems to work on normal" is very vague, and "possibly easy as well" is just speculation.  Could you confirm that these regularly occur on levels of normal or lower difficulty?  That would be interesting, if accurate.

Actually, I have had the same thing happen to me.  At the end of turn one, I've had two libraries and one prestigious location spawn where I am sure there weren't any. (I know, because it was for a playthrough, and I had a snapshot of my starting location)

I think that the game spawns resources for everyone, player and AI, and if it's not some master plan of the developers, it should be fixed.

As a matter of fact, I do have that same game posted on on that playthrough.  Give it a try, i.e. load it, and go to turn 2 a couple of time, you will see it happen.

Yeah thats pretty lame

I just finished a game on ridiculous on 1.00

It may be just my luck, but with a lot of snaking, my capital had three resources in its sphere of influence.

For comparison, Yithril had 7, for a perfectly round conclave: 3 grains, 1 clay, two shards, gold.  Kraxis had 6: horses, 2x crystal, iron, gold and a shard.

Oh I'm sure it was just a coincidence.