[harimau777]

Is a difference perhaps that computers tend to operate even when someone isn't directly using them in a way that most tools do not? Something like a shovel or even a forklift only operates while someone is there using it. Something like a sign or a barricade "operates" all of the time, but an individual can often move it if they need to (e.g. if a "road closed" barricade was poorly placed such that it blocks an unrelated road).

On the other hand, when "the algorithm" messes up there's often no one operating it to talk to and no way for the effected individual to bypass it. In that sense, perhaps computers behave like "entities" in a way that other tools do not?

[necovek]

Somewhat, but you get the same with animals we've used as "tools" for a long time (horses, donkeys and cows spring to mind).

There are plenty of things that can kill or hurt us that we've made that have no active operator either (I mentioned buildings and roads/bridges collapsing, and one could even place a shovel on a pile that slips or falls off a truck and hurts you; or using a wire gauge that's too thin for electric current it carries; or...). Lack of care (or expertise) in whatever humans construct or build can harm you without having an operator or any automation.