If the player suicides a lot of ships at once the AI says "Why are you throwing your lives away".. or something like that (I've deleted the taunt sound files). It wouldn't make any sense to have humans pilot the ships. Humans are at the brink of extinction so it would be pretty stupid to risk lives. Also. A Figther is almost as big as a whole human settlement. So either it would take a buttload of humans to operate 1 Fighter or the settlements are very small. And it's possible for the player to have thousands of ships.. and if all of those ships get destroyed the player can rebuild them over and over again. The only limiting factor is Metal. So remove the "Why are you throwing your lives away" taunt or add "Population" resource?
Also how is the AI able to "taunt" the player? Does the AI have humans' phone number? It's the same in all games where the enemy "taunts" the player. A bit stupid IMO.
Actually if I remember correctly, the AI doesn't get scouts because it ALWAYS has the effect of Full Vision. They know where everything is. Including the Human HW(s). So the AI being able to taunt Humanity makes sense, since they could just direct a focused transmission right at the Human HW(s) using
Giant megacloaked space speakers. So cloaked they don't even show up in scouting.
As for how they deal with sound in space, they have mastered Intergalactic Space Travel. That already makes physics cry. So whats a little more bending of reality as we know it?