It’s funny, and it doesn’t hurt anyone.

It sure sounds to me like they were trying to justify it. Funny or not, if it hurts everyone so no, it's not a justified use. Hurting anyone, let alone everyone, just for the lolz is far from acceptable.

Thats in no way "putting words in their mouth", I was pointing out what they were saying. Their point literally coalesced into "i posted a funny picture and it didn't hurt anyone" which is factually untrue by participating in driving demand for harmful tech.

I wasnt insulting in any way, I was illustrating how their point fell apart. There is real, quantifiable harm.

Whatever though

That they didn't talk about the resource consumption is part of the problem. Discussing whether the output of a genai system is 'art' or not is a fine philosophical debate, but ignores both the costs of creating the output, and the way the data to do so was sourced and processed.

If human 'artists' burned through the same amount of power, water, and other resources just to produce their art there would also be an outcry. If the raw materials that 'art' was created from were so blatently copied from others there would also be an outcry. Indeed, when a human is found to be copying another's work and passing it off as their own, there is an outcry.