Newbie with some questions

[Warsaw Baby]

I have a couple of questions concerning SEIV Gold. I have been fooling around with the demo and I am trying to decide which I should buy SEIV or Galatic Civ. It seems that SEIV is more 4x but the AI got good Ratings in GalCiv. FYI I always just play the computer, no multi player etc. (not enough time) So my questions.
1) Are there mods for the AI which make it more intellegent in its strategy and descision making? I am tired of the CIV type AI's which compensate for their stupidity with overwhelming force.
2)While playing the demo I noticed whenever I contacted a race and made an offer (such as a trade treaty) I would have to wait till the end of the turn for the answear. Does this mean that offers and counteroffers will take several turns?
3) How do you use the remote miners etc. which show up on your ship design screen. Do I add them to a ship and move them to the planet I want to mine? Does the mined material automatically get into resource pool or do I need to transport back to a planet with a spaceport? Is there anyway to automate the whole process?
Thank You in advance for your help.