> LLMs aren't racist: sometimes they might emit predictive text, which can be interpreted as racist.

I think this take is overly simplistic. LLMs can only learn from the data that we give them - if we feed in Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion then its output is going to be racist and anti-semetic. This is to say that the biases of the data we feed in to the system have some effect - large or small - on the output. LLMs only show us a reflection of ourselves, and if we're not careful with the training data we are more likely to propagate racist output as a result of what biases affect the input.

Whether or not the LLM went through what we consider the human process of thinking to generate racist outputs or if it's only predictive as a result of the input is sort of moot when the reader doesn't know if a person or LLM produced the output, and the impact on marginalized communities of propagating racist attitudes of stereotypes will be the same regardless of what the LLM "intended" or was designed to do.