I'd take ASI (or even AGI) more seriously if we could actually propose problems such things could solve. That's actually fun to think about! As it is, it feels a lot more like a really crappy drug that got slipped into some peoples' drinks that makes them ramble in random fits of psychotic mania.

Manipulating people is not a very difficult problem, frankly. You certainly don't need AI for that; it just made it cheaper.