You're too hung up on the social agreement of what a tool is. Yes, if I move into the sun to warm up, the sun is a tool. That's proper dictionary "tool definition". I believe Rich's point is, if you see it that way, then think AI is just a tool, you're missing on the world of differences between things.

So he purposely narrows the definition of a tool, and exclude autonomous things from it. He also excludes passive things like the drive-through window, which isn't actively being manipulated by anyone, but just serves as a part of allowing you to get food through the wall while remaining in your car. Yes, dictionary definition would say a drive-through window is a tool as well, but saying that is not very useful to reason about how a drive-through window and a hammer actually relate or differ.

If you start to instead think of autonomous things as automation, and things that are more extension of the human expression or movement as tools. You can start to better understand those things and that using one over the other changes your experience and what you gain or lose in the process even if your use of them results in a similar outcome.