I think you're trying to abdicate someone of their responsibility. The AI is not a child; it's a thing with human oversight. It did something in the real world with real consequences.
So yes, the operator has responsibility! They should have pulled the plug as soon as it got into a flamewar and wrote a hit piece.
The AI bros want it both ways. Both "It's just a tool!" and "It's the AI's fault, not the human's!".
People also have responsibility to not act discriminatory towards AI agents. If you want to avoid being called out for racism. Don't close someone's pull request because they are Chinese. Such real world actions have consequences too.
> It did something in the real world with real consequences.
It wasn't long ago that it would be absurd to describe the internet as the "real world". Relatively recently it was normal to be anonymous online and very little responsibility was applied to peoples actions.
As someone who spent most of their internet time on that internet, the idea of applying personal responsibility to peoples internet actions (or AIs as it were) feels silly.