This is a well known beta bug that they will eventually get around to fixing.
There is intermittent instability when this happens but I have had some fun with it. In one game I was able to declare war on the pirates and I had a nice war with them for 20-30 turns. They even invaded a planet of mine but I guess it failed or didn't take because I never found a lost planet 
Knowing it will eventually go away, I kind of get a kick out of playing around with it. Negotiating with the dead AI, buying or destroying all their ghost ships and killing off all their ghost shipyards and star bases is a little extra fun at the end of a game. I have had as many as 4 dead AI hang around for 30-40 turns. If you keep playing and save and reload a few times the dead AI will finally disappear from the diplomacy screen, but the "pirates" and their bases and useless shipyards have to be destroyed. heh heh