On Fri Jul 24, 2026 at 12:25 PM -03, Ian Jackson wrote:
Summary: Reject LLMs (generative "AI") as far as practicalBACKGROUND LLMs have many serious problems, including: undermining the mechanisms of free software community building; environmental damage; exploitation of authors; disruption to open web hosting by aggressive scraping; generation and promulgation of bullshit; polluting the information commons; hazards to users' mental health; economic bubbles; distortion of the computer hardware market; fraud; ownership by horrible people and companies; and so on. Ethical and safe use of this technology is almost impossible. Ideally, LLM output should not form any part of software that we rely on, nor should LLM output ever take the place of human-written prose. Unfortunately some of the wider software world, including many of our upstreams, take a different view. Therefore a complete ban on LLM output as part of Debian is currently impractical. REQUESTS 1. We request that all contributors to Debian avoid the use of LLMs in their Debian work. 2. We request that all decisionmakers within Debian discourage LLM use as much as practical. Practicality is a judgement call and we recognise that it will involve uncomfortable compromises. 3. We request that everyone, even outside Debian, should refrain from using this technology. In particular, the Free Software and Open Source communities should reject LLMs. We recognise that not everyone will heed this call. REQUIREMENTS (SUPPLEMENT TO THE CODE OF CONDUCT) 4. Within Debian, messages to humans (including for example bug reports, mailing list messages, discussions on Salsa, and blog posts on Planet Debian) must be drafted solely by humans without LLM assistance. 5. Any use of LLMs for Debian work must be disclosed. 6. Individual projects and maintainers may ban LLM contributions completely. Such bans (including by upstream projects) must be respected. 7. Violations of these requirements should be treated as violations of the Code of Conduct and should result in swift but proportionate disciplinary action. 8. Any contributor who feels they cannot write in English without assistance, may write in their native language, and expect readers to use translation tools of their choice. In that case a human-written English summary would be very welcome but is not required. In any case we promise not to shame anyone for any linguistic mistakes.
Seconded. (sorry for the double post, but I forgot to sign the first one)
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