And you said the AI is easy?

[Baron Munchausen]

The AI is quite tough in the early game because the 'patterns' it has to figure out are very simple. Finding a hostile AI right next to you is one of the ways to have a pretty tough game. Starting with an AI in your home system is very, very tough. Try allowing players to start in the same system some time. But by the late game when there are many planets, ships, and units to manage and many technologies to use the AI becomes confused and dramatically loses it's effectiveness. Even on the high difficulty setting with a bonus it can be very stupid. Something needs to be improved to make it able to make clear decisions in the complex setting of the late game.