AI starting position

Is there a way to set the bots/Ai to start thr same way as you, with only 1 system? My problem is that ive had 2 games where I couldnt get further than 5 systems away before finding out that all my hyperlinks are blocked by these large empires already. I reduced the number of ai players and it feels like they just started out large as fuck and still almost blocking me in. I got a 3rd game started and was able to finally expand without splitting my empire up but just curious if there's a way to give ai the same starting conditions as you?