It's absolutely the correct distinction to draw. AI will be able to present as a person while behaving as a system. We don't have intuitions for dealing with that.
An AI "friend bot" could talk like an individual, but be controlled by a network that is making global decisions - what if one of its goals is reducing social unrest by undermining the confidence of users with certain political views? What if the network is 25% owned by China, or by Chevron? What if it's perfectly benevolent, but still choosing what to tell you based on its strategy?
