Has anyone actually noticed smarter AI behaviors when using CPU intensive settings? What else does the AI do besides designing more ships?
AFAIK this has changed over the different versions of the game.
I do know that for DL this just allowed the AI to redesign ships more frequently. Conceptually this could mean that it would be more likely that you would have to face ships with the AI's latest technology instead of technology that was 6 months old. However in practice I don't believe this made any noticable difference.
In DA I think it's pretty much the same although that's a total guess and I'd be interested in hearing from someone that actually knows.
In TA I wouldn't even hazard a guess, but again I'd be interested in hearing about what improvements have been made in this area.