My first time playing Sins, I fired up a 1v1 Easy AI - Economist game and first thing I did was build up on the asteroids around the home planet and send 2 scouts out to map the galaxy.
The 2nd planet (2 phase jumps away from HW) my scout found a new habitable planet, yet there was a siege frigate there, along with 2-3 normal frigates (enemy was TEC).

I was like, the game just started, how on earth did the AI manage to get enough resources so quickly to build a military station or two, research siege frigate, and then construct it and send it to a planet 3-jumps from its HW (another one of my scouts found it later in my game), all in the span of about 5-10 mins from starting the game?

Also, when choosing AI, does their trait just determine how that AI will play or does it give them an advantage in that area? Ie. I picked Economist AI, so does that mean the AI will focus on its economy more or will it mean it gets a bonus on resource collection rates?

Thanks