On Tue, Jul 28, 2026 at 07:00:45AM -0600, Sam Hartman wrote:
I second this proposal and prefer it to the one I seconded previously.
I support this as an amendment to the previous proposal from Charles.
I don't see that proposal as a solution for the issue we are facing.
Calling out to the community to develop Free AI is orthogonal to
allowing or forbidding the use of ALL AI in Debian.
Let's compare that with automobiles.
We have combustion engines.
We have electric cars.
Many people object to having electric cars and would prefer to continue
using the inferior and outdated combustion engine because that's how we
always did it. Those people are now calling out to the Industry to
create "highly efficient" combustion engines, giving that those will be
up to par or even better than electric cars.
Now replace the combustion engine with "everythign written by a human",
electric cars with "using AI assistance" and "free AI models" with
"highly efficient combustion engines". We neither have "highly effient
combustion engines" nor do we have "free AI models" that are able to
compete with the non-free things that were aleady available.
The only thing that this proposal can result in for us is a prohibition
to use the currently available "free as in beer" AI models.
I also strongly agree that it is appropriate for this proposal to be on
the same ballot. Often there is disagreement on what the question under
discussion is. Especially in controversial situations, we will not be
able to agree on that, and our voting process does not force us to do
so.
If that proposal is on the ballot, we should be able to take TWO
decisions as this one just postpones the problem.
In my mind, I consider these proposal related because I think that if
there is strong free AI, the objections people have to the use of AI in
Debian will be largely addressed.
I am pretty sure that I would not buy the hardware needed to run a local
AI model on.
So, rather than supporting a bunch of rules around the use of AI in
Debian, I support us putting energy behind building free AI.
So this proposal is being supported because it deliberately doesn't apply
changes to the current situation?
Greetings
Marc
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