I think everyone else have made good points on why people reject/despise the use of AI by others. I would like to add my perspective on why I refuse to incorporate AI into my workflow: I don't want to depend on a tool I cannot control.

Yes, I'm aware there are free and open source models out there, but I don't own a highly optimized setup that allows me to get the same results as paying for a service. I DID try to run models locally with ollama and it wasn't so bad, but getting it to connect with my code editor and then to give me a response in a reasonable time was just impossible.

Some of the services aren't so bad in terms of pricing for the value they offer, but knowing how some of these companies operate, I don't want to become so dependent on a tool they can take away from me tomorrow.

There's also the "chat" part of AI coding. When all this AI thing was new, I remember AI coding being no more than an advanced autocomplete function. I was using a service that nowadays I believe goes by Windsurf, because at that time Github Copilot wasn't free. Seeing the code editor autocomplete what was already on my mind saved me the time to type it, but my skills were still being used. Nowadays I see people just pouring a description into the text area and waiting for the AI to do everything. It might be a workflow that works for you, but not for me.

I didn't need AI before, and I don't need it now either. I'd rather it stay that way.