Does the AI "cheat-peek" when selecting which Pokémon to send out?
In Pokémon Stadium (mostly 1, but also 2) I have played around with save-states a bit.
It seems that in the battles where both I and the AI select 3 out of 6 Pokémon for battle, the AI is affected by my choices, both in terms of which 3 Pokémon it chooses, and in which one is sent out first.
In theory, the AI should not "know" which 3 Pokémon I chose.
Is there any relationship between my choices and that of the AI, or am I just imagining things?
After some research I've looked and from my limited knowledge I can say it's likely just you.
Based on some sleuthing Pokemon Stadium (and likely 2) are based on Pokemon Red / Green which after looking at some of the source code for Pokemon Red and searching online for reports I don't think it peeks at your party to calculate it's next move.
From the limited source code for Stadium I can also say there's no peeking that I could see here. This is all very basic looking and possibly not a direct source. Satoru Iwata did port the code based on the linked interview and could have possibly changed it in Stadium and Stadium 2 however.