Why? It's just another tool, no different to a pencil, paper or hammer.
There is shitty AI generations which you see most common on the web, but I use it a lot for my work and, really - it's been a game changer in the industry I work in. It's saved countless hours and, achieved the same - and in some cases - better, result than our clients were looking for.
All of our clients are fully aware we use AI to enhance our work, and they're fine - and more often than not, intrigued by it and want a demonstration.
As I said, you've got cheap, shitty AI images - where people just type "porn" into a field and share what comes out. Or you've got skilfully generated AI using mapping, references - and of course via nodes you can introduce a whole new aspect of images never thought possible before.
As for this remark. Yes, a lot of people have used it too much and incorrectly, I might add. Though I don't think someone should deserve "the worst that can happen to a human being" for simply using a new tool. I can imagine there were people that had the same mindset when cameras started to exist, and a lot of artists back then were put out of a job because a portrait could be photographed and achieve levels of quality that a painter couldn't reach in the same time.
Technology changes. You can stand against the grain if you wish, but I will tell you now - a LOT of the tech sector - especially game development - are using it, whether you know it or not. Some of the bigger companies, I'm not going to say who - but you can guess rather easily, are using it primarily for texture generation - and you better believe when 3D model generation is finally released (it's in testing as we speak), we'll see 3D models being produced en masse.
Edit - also, "art" is defined by those who view it. My definition and your definition of "art" might never align. And that's fine, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And we don't share our eyes.
Edit 2 - Not sure why so many are "facepalming" about this.