Simon, you're not explaining how you think the way the computer does this so differently to how a human does it.

I concede the point about numbers or letters, I was just simplifying things a bit.

Raw data can be systematically turned into graphs, it does not require interpretation.
By the time it's in a graph, it has already been interpreted. How is the way a computer creates the graph any different to the way a human creates a graph? I am not saying the computer knows what it means (yet), I am saying that if the context is known to the observer then the data has been manipulated to become information.

Knowledge of the meaning of the data comes at a later stage, and for the record yes I do think a computer can have knowledge of it, with further analysis. This is the way knowledge based systems work. There are numerous examples of them in industry, such as MYCIN that the NHS uses for diagnosis, and there's one DEC uses for quality control of the large and complex computers that it builds for specialist purposes.

It's not human level AI, but it is AI.