Mods at r/opensource released new submission rules that, among other things, banned projects using AI. The post Saturday evening opens by saying: “If your project uses AI, is made by AI, or is for AI, it is not welcome on r/opensource. AI, as it exists today, is not consistent with this Open Source community.”
The new rules ignited a storm in the comments and even spurred the creation of a rival r/trueopensource sub. Moderator Wolvereness took to the comments to explain that there are nuances and opportunities for selective enforcement, such as “software that happens to have accessibility features that uses AI,” including automatic captioning. But that hasn’t slowed community complaints that the new rules are too broad, ill-advised or vague. Many have pointed out that the Linux kernel now contains AI-generated code and therefore projects that use it could be banned under the new rules.
While the AI ban gets the most attention, mods also impose other restrictions on posts. Submitted projects must be at least one year old, actively maintained, and have multiple contributors. This would prevent solo developers with new projects from seeking help. The mods even say “we can no longer respond to requests asking maintainers or people to contribute.”
The mods also banned all non-English speaking members of the community. “If you don’t speak English, you need to find a different community,” the post read. “We can’t distinguish between what is written by the AI and what is translated by the AI. Since you don’t speak English, you can’t even check whether the translation is correct yourself.”
Gn tech
