because the market size is smaller than any other market
Any other market? Man. 1 daily bitcoin volume = 150 daily volumes on whole stock market in my country across all 500 available stocks.
There are only few markets bigger than bitcoin's in terms of volume and liquidity but none of them compete with bitcoin if you add volatility into calculation.
Can AI predict bitcoin price? For sure it can in middle/short term. Manipulation you are talking about happens from time to time and is nothing else than statistic error because AI bot can trade 24/7.