Fedora Approves AI-Assisted Contributions 15
The Fedora Council has approved a new policy allowing AI-assisted code contributions, provided contributors fully disclose and take responsibility for any AI-generated work. Phoronix reports: AI-assisted code contributions can be used but the contributor must take responsibility for that contribution, it must be transparent in disclosing the use of AI such as with the "Assisted-by" tag, and that AI can help in assisting human reviewers/evaluation but must not be the sole or final arbiter. This AI policy also doesn't cover large-scale initiatives which will need to be handled individually with the Fedora Council. [...] The Fedora Council does expect that this policy will need to be updated over time for staying current with AI technologies.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
A fedora is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides.
The Fedora Council promotes the wearing of fedoras and attempts to ensure that they're not worn backwards (a common problem).
Re: (Score:1)
It sounded like some Star Wars thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Who or what is Fedora and the Fedora Council?
https://youtu.be/QstPMc7_HcM [youtu.be]
I heard Linus was Colonel Sanders for Halloween often as a child. Coincidence?
Time to find another distro... (Score:4, Interesting)
After being with Fedora from the beginning this might be a moment to switch distro...
This is whole new level of risks - starting from legal ones to LLM-poisoning...
Re:Time to find another distro... (Score:5, Insightful)
How are they supposed to detect whether AI was used or not? This is pretty much a forced move. The key part is that the developer still has full responsibility.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see what's wrong. AI can help a lot in many instances. For example, it could allow someone with weaker English skills be able to contribute important documentation by first writing what they whated to say, have AI help clarify their contribution to something that would be acceptable to submit.
And then we'd have a new piece of documentation. Or maybe they could write it out in their native language, and have AI translate it.
Sure it's going to be work, but for things that are sorely needed like docume
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is that an AI will "confidently lie", in a convincing way. It's a real problem, and that's why the submitter MUST remain responsible.
If, as seems probable, AI improves over the next few years, then that responsibility may be relocated, but not yet
Re: (Score:2)
*IF* that's correct (I think it's oversimplified) then that's part of why the responsibility must remain on the submitter.
More to the point, when the project receives the code or documentation, it can't tell what process was used to construct the code or documentation. So the responsibility must remain with the submitter.
How Does One Avoid AI Assistance? (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if you just search for documentation or help with errors, aren't you going to get AI assistance whether you want it or not?
Re: (Score:2)
This is a sensible policy (Score:5, Insightful)
AI-assisted code contributions can be used but the contributor must take responsibility for that contribution.
IDE-assisted code contributions can be used but the contributor must take responsibility for that contribution.
Nail-guns can be used but the operator must take responsibility for that fastener.
Targeting sights can be used but the operator must take responsibility for that shot.
Circular saws can be used but the operator must take responsibility for that cut.
These are all equivalent statements. Make the operator responsible for their contribution, regardless of what tool is used. Good contributors will use tools that are effective. Ineffective tools will either improve, or be discarded. The standards do not change if the contributor used an IDE, or a static analysis tool, or an AI, or a fuzzer, or StackOverflow, or their best friend, or 1000 monkeys at 1000 keyboards.
Of course (Score:1)
You might not like it, but soon most code will be AI assisted. And the clever projects know that and prepare how to work with AI assisted code instead of trying bans they need to remove 2 years later to avoid becoming obsolete. Now a few people uses AI as toy, but in 2 years probably most coders will use AI in one way or another.
Why? (Score:2)
Why is this Assisted-By tag required?