The standard difficulty, can't remember what it is called... medium?  average?

And in this case, I'm sure it was not building level.  I was surprised at this trend in a previous game, so, as a check, I started a new game, made sure the candidates had the same experience rating, built my outreach building on turn one, and watched carefully what he did, checking what he built each turn and double checking the map.  Mirroring his building, he got WAY ahead on endorsements.

Maybe the difficulty levels are strangely labeled, and the AI gets a substantial advantage at this level.  But I have a theory that there is some other factor involved, some game strategy I have not learned.

If you're checking what he's doing through the news tab, it's a week behind. It shows the news from the previous weeks, not the current one. If you're mirroring his building this way, you'd be a week behind them. If your playing a higher difficulty level, the computer most likely gets a boost of some type to make it tougher.