2 months ago
- The proposal aims to ban contributions written with the use or assistance of LLMs or other generative AI tools in Debian packages, software, documentation, and official communications.
- LLMs raise copyright concerns due to unclear legal status of their output, which conflicts with Debian Policy requiring clear licensing.
- LLM output suffers from quality issues including inaccuracies and mixing of outdated practices, making it unsuitable for Debian's stable packaging and documentation.
- LLM contributions could harm the community by burdening reviewers and preventing new contributors from learning Debian processes.
- Ethical concerns include LLM companies scraping web data without regard for license or copyright, causing denial of service on Debian infrastructure and wasting resources.
- The proposal suggests adding a 6th item to the Debian Social Contract explicitly forbidding direct LLM-generated contributions.
- Enforcement relies on community good faith rather than strict policing, as a statement of intent.