You'll get more out of the Balance mod than the inter-relations mod. We aren't trying to ram BM down your throat but Kwok has put a lot of good effort into it and is constantlyupdating it.
Join a Play by Web game and you can battle real people, thus the need for an AI is moot.
IRM offers a lot of new technologies, particularly when it comes to weaponry. The AI was initial based off the BM, but has since taken a life of its own. I think the mod's author is still tweaking it though after the SE:V v1.25 changes. There's a number of threads over at SE5.com that discuss the mod extensively.