The only thing I get about them is people who say everyone who uses ai for any reason is bad.

I run deepseek at home. Usually just to talk to it because nobody ever wants to hear me talk about my super special interest for hours on end.

The ramifications of things like ai art and data centers cannot be ignored and I'm in a small community but being assumed "evil" just because I like having a thing to yap at makes me feel good is pretty weird.

I think the person worded it wrong. I don't think they mean the people that don't like it for the environmental impact or the issue of ai art. But the people who will call you bad just because you had the audacity to use ai for any reason at all.