Lucas Nussbaum <[email protected]> wrote on 19/02/2026 at 10:14:54+0100:
> Hi Harlan, > > On 18/02/26 at 17:48 -0600, Harlan Lieberman-Berg wrote: >> On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 4:38 PM Lucas Nussbaum <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > Based on recent discussions, it sounds like we probably need a >> > discussion in the framework of a GR to understand where we stand >> > regarding AI-assisted contributions to Debian. >> >> >> Hello Lucas, all, >> >> With all due respect to your work on drafting this, Lucas, I strongly urge >> us not to go through with a GR on this topic yet. This is something which >> both us and the larger free software community is still actively debating, >> and a GR is a tool for when a decision is ready to be made. Having a GR on >> this matter now is premature and will be extremely divisive -- even >> schismatic. >> >> As someone with personally strong feelings about AI, I still believe that >> we are better off with the current status quo where we can still discuss, >> rather than vote and decide. > > I disagree. > > First, several major organizations and projects have established policies > or guidelines about AI-assisted contributions. Some examples: > https://www.apache.org/legal/generative-tooling.html > https://www.linuxfoundation.org/legal/generative-ai > https://www.eclipse.org/projects/handbook/#genai > https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/contributing/ai-coding.html > https://openinfra.org/legal/ai-policy/ > https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/council/policy/ai-contribution-policy/ > https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rfc-llvm-ai-tool-policy-human-in-the-loop/89159 > > Second, the current status quo within Debian is that there are many > people who experimented with AI tools, concluded that they could help > them with their Debian work somehow, are probably already using them for > Debian work. But they prefer to stay mostly silent in the discussions > and only express support in private because there's a group of people > that vehemently rejects AI and attacks people that admit using it. > > What I'm seeking with this GR proposal is a middle ground that allows us > to respectfully move forward, accommodating both the people who want to > use AI tools in the context of Debian and share their experiences, and > the people who want to limit their exposure to AI. > > I do not want anyone to quit Debian as a result of this discussion, so I > tried to write down a proposal that goes quite far into accommodating > both groups, and we could probably go further or have other options in > both directions. > > But, as I wrote elsewhere, I view the current discussions about AI like > discussions about politics (or VI vs Emacs, or programming languages). > People approach these topics with vastly different backgrounds; there is > little hope of fundamentally changing someone's core opinion. > Consequently, while these debates are interesting, they are also > exhausting. > > I believe we should focus on what is desirable specifically for the > Debian project. We should agree to disagree on AI in general, and > instead focus on how we can work together despite that disagreement. > > I don't want to rush things, but I also don't think that it's useful to > spend a lot of time rehashing arguments. Starting a GR thread this quick doesn't give the impression that discussions will be able to occur peacefully and as slowly as Debian might need. I'm a bit unsettled by the fact that you did go this way, especially because it doesn't give a sufficient amount of time to non-Debian Members to give us their opinion and feedback. -- PEB
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