[lvxferre]

>Essentially a "guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument.

Not quite. It's more like "a gun cannot be held morally responsible for its actions, so actual people should".

The difference is important here because, depending on the situation, you might still want to blame people who allowed the shooter to have a gun, not just the shooter.

>I think this argument breaks down as weapons get more powerful, e.g. if I could walk down to my local car dealership and buy a cheap tank powerful enough to level a city, it seems good to focus more on "ease of tank purchase" than "culpability for tank drivers". // I think the argument also breaks down as AI gets more powerful.

Note how we're still blaming people: the car dealer and the driver. Not the "it" = tank.

And it's the same deal with the AI. If you use an AI system in a way that harms people, sometimes the "car dealer" (the ones coding the AI) should be held responsible, sometimes the driver (you), sometimes both. But never "neither", i.e. "the AI is at fault".