Do you think the AI uses intel to its maximum effect? Below is a list of stuff that happened to me during my Last game when one empire was spending 200,000 intel points per turn against my 40,000 defensive intel points:
They successfully damaged several planet's conditions, did food contamination, made colonies unhappy. They stole a couple of battle cruisers inside my system--one of which had stellar manipulation components which had just been built. They disrupted research projects that had been going for 5 turns. The worst one they did was to mess with a 20% trade treaty that was bringing in 100,000 minerals per turn. That one stung a little bit. They also cost ships supplies or messed up the orders of ships.
My opinion is that once your empire grows to a certain size, you aren't going to feel the effects of these minor intel projects that strongly. But what would have happened to me if the AI had been spending all its points on Puppet Political Parties? With 200,000 intel points, couldn't the EA have grabbed hold of a couple of my planets every turn?
Also, any thoughts from those of you who have used intel yourself to bring the AI to its knees... rdouglas?