Comment on Self-Host Weekly (13 March 2026)
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
It feels like there’s a meta-discussion to be had about AI disclosure and AI use in a lot of these projects and it’s starting to boil over.
I would suggest that maintainers should:
- Add an AI disclosure in their readme, which is what I do on my projects. If you don’t like AI then it’s on the tin and you can avoid it – explicit is always better than implicit.
- Provide guidelines on AI contributions to their project. Every project needs an AI contribution policy now because we live in a world where most devs do use AI code gen. If you accept a patch from a community user it’s probably been touched by AI.
- Detail their AI workflow, but specifically how they review this code. I can only really work and review at a file-at-a-time pace so that 100% of AI code is reviewed by me, in detail, and it’s up to my standards.
When it comes to existing projects that start adding AI contributions it’s always going to be difficult. It’s not something projects started with even the option of, there’s no way to get consent from your users (nor whether you should you get their consent), and there have been varying levels of AI code gen for years now from simple completions to now agentic vibe coding.
I’ll be honest, most of my own projects use AI generated code, and I use it for work. It’s never code I couldn’t have written myself – because if it were how could I review it? But the fact is, in the year 2026 AI code generation is both fast, usable, and it’s near ubiquitous. There are tasks I could work on for weeks that I can build plus review in a couple of hours with AI. It’s very hard to argue with that, and I’m a very picky coder+reviewer.
And lastly, for the community we all need to be mindful of open source maintainers.
They work hard, for free, and get treated like shit by users, the law, and big corporations. There’s a new generation of people who sign up for code hosting services just to request features or complain in your git issues, they’re opening up slop PRs and emailing you. Plus, internet users love to pile on and harass people.
Please remember there’s (usually) a human made of meat at the end of the intertubes, and when 100s of people write mean/abrasive things it adds up. Nobody is perfect, open source devs are just trying to share and help.
PS for mods: I saw there was another thread on another app using AI that was locked as off topic, I am trying to be constructive in this comment, but if it’s off topic/too divisive I understand.
Zos_Kia@jlai.lu 2 days ago
I think disclosure is good and should be tackled as soon as possible because being transparent in your communication is just good practice in general.
However I feel like this will soon be rendered useless as all projects will move to agentic (or otherwise ai-assisted) coding.
Maybe there’ll be a movement of hand coded FOSS but realistically they’ll have a hard time. Resources are already tight for most projects, and rejecting productivity in favor of aesthetics is a rich guy’s strategy.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 days ago
mine won’t. ever.
you’re overlooking principles. I’ll trade “productivity” for my morals every time.
I know I’m not the only dev to feel like this.
Zos_Kia@jlai.lu 2 days ago
And that’s great for you but I still think you’ll be in a minority. Which is not necessarily bad of course.
Open Source devs mostly come from the industry and the penetration of agentic coding in the industry has been massive over the last six months. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything of this scale.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 2 days ago
minority or not. I’m not going to make excuses to just “join in” when there’s heavy implications of licensing violations and poor ethical practices surrounding the implementation of slopware.
I’ll never use AI in the development of a project because it goes against every single principal that drives me. AI is my arch enemy, the antithesis of my whole being.