I know there's a lotta discourse out there about Palworld vs. Pokemon, and I wanted to give my 2 cents on it. If you're not interested in that you're free to ignore this post! No hard feelings!
First: If you wanna play the game, play it. Does this make you a bad person with bad morals? No.
Second: No AI was used. This was a rumor with zero proof. The CEO mentioned his interest in AI at some point or AI was used on OTHER projects but not on Palworld.
Third: Did they steal models from Pokémon? I believe it was heavily inspired to a point where they toed a line, yes, but that's Nintendo's battle to fight, not yours. This game showed trailers 2 years ago. If Nintendo wanted to stop it, they would've already. Plus, Pokémon ripped their designs off Dragon Quest, so no one is innocent here. The multi-billion dollar corporation will be alright, I promise.
Fourth: You can be both a Pokémon fan AND a Palworld fan. The games are actually insanely different in gameplay and story. Palworld is actually more similar to ARK or Rust than it is Pokémon. If I'm honest, Palworld is built better.
Fifth: Pokémon fans should see this as a good competition for Nintendo. Competition means Nintendo might take the next game a little more seriously, allowing for a better product than what was initially received with Violet/Scarlet.
And lastly, if I had to take a guess, the Palworld devs probably (and this is just my opinion!) hired a lawyer to tell them how far they could toe the line which means what they've done is legal. People might not like that but that might just be how it is.
That being said, yes I've played the game, yes I love it and yes, I will continue playing it and I don't feel bad about it.
Thanks for listening to my rant!