Open Source Is Hobbling Itself Over Generative AI
The answer to bad AI-assisted contributions is not a purity test. It is better engineering discipline. Earlier this year, a discussion in the GNUstep community raised a proposal that will sound familiar across the Free Software world: prohibit AI-generated code in core projects and proudly advertise the result as “coded by humans” or “AI-free.” The argument was not frivolous. Generative AI raises real questions about copyright, attribution, security, energy use, labor, trust, and the flood of low-quality patches that maintainers are increasingly being asked to review. But a blanket refusal to use generative AI is the wrong response. It does not solve the hardest problems. It creates rules that are nearly impossible to define or enforce, confuses the method of production with the quality of the product, and risks turning Free Software into a movement that protects yesterday’s workflow instead of protecting software freedom. Open Source and Free Software are already operating with ...