Thanks Amogh, Yes. The article is pretty good :).
But I think that "kudos" is more for the community - ASF members, and various Foundation members I reached out to. IMHO what we saw in this case was pretty unprecedented unity and understanding how important the problem is and how dangerous it might be to the very foundations of the open-source idea. I spoke to many people and I have not seen a single voice in our community who would say "this is not important" or "why are you escalating this". The response was overwhelmingly positive, and I think the main reason was because it tapped very deeply into the core "foundations" of the Open-Source, where the sheer thought that someone is not accepting the volunteer work "as they decided it on their own" but apparently is trying to make use of volunteer's effort for their own commercial benefits (even if it is unintentional, which we will never find out). That resonated very well with everyone who understands even a bit how open-source works. I have been amazed - also similar to the "community involvement" in some of the things we do now for Airflow 3 -> the provider's move caught me a bit with a surprise - on how well people responded and helped there - about 20 people (!). And it only shows that an individual's values and work matter in Open Source, but it matters even more if that individual learns how they can amplify their work by a number of other people who share similar values and are part of the same community and follow up, learn and carry the "baton". We are all extremely lucky to be part of those communities of people. J. On Sun, Feb 9, 2025 at 5:44 AM Amogh Desai <amoghdesai....@gmail.com> wrote: > Nice! > > I like how well you have escalated and handled this, Jarek. > This is cool: > https://thenewstack.io/ai-is-spamming-open-source-repos-with-fake-issues/ > > > Thanks & Regards, > Amogh Desai > > > On Tue, Feb 4, 2025 at 8:07 PM Jarek Potiuk <ja...@potiuk.com> wrote: > > > Here is the article in The New Stack: > > > https://thenewstack.io/ai-is-spamming-open-source-repos-with-fake-issues/ > > > > On Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 12:39 PM Jarek Potiuk <ja...@potiuk.com> wrote: > > > > > Hey, > > > > > > I am at FOSDEM now but I have some progress and more information about > > the > > > whole stuf: > > > > > > Some facts first (without any judgment from my side): > > > > > > * my posts in social media reached many, many people (thanks to you - > > > posting it and people from other foundations) - the reach out is > amazing > > - > > > more than 200.000 views, and Outlier.ai and Scale.ai noticed > > > * Scale.ai reached out to me. They apologized for what they have done > (in > > > private so far), and admitted it has been their fault entirely. They > > > admitted their instructions were poorly written and led the people they > > > hired to submit issues where they were never supposed to do it > > > * We had a call where we discussed why and how it happened and > > > they explained also that they changed those instructions with bright > > flashy > > > "do not submit issues" and added explicit instructions there > > > * they could not (would not) really explain (what exactly the project > and > > > generating issues was for) - initially they mentioned training agents > to > > > behave like humans do and create issues that will have higher > probability > > > to be accepted but they backed out later - telling that it's only about > > > "assessing" issue > > > * they promised to come back to me with more details - and questions > > about > > > what was the extent of the project and what they want to achieve > > > * I was (and thanks to an unnamed ASF member who put me in contact > with) > > > contacted by a journalist from The New Stack writing a story about it. > I > > > had a call with her and I also contacted them with Scale.ai so that > they > > > can share their part of the story as well) > > > * GitHub is - faster and faster it seems - reacting and blocking those > > > users based on our report - they got some understanding about the > > situation > > > and they started to see the patterns and block those users when > reported. > > > Even today I got 3 confirmations about blocked accounts. > > > > > > My take (and this is speculation from my side not fact): > > > * they WERE training agent AI to be able to submit issues (even if now > > > they deny it) > > > * this is a VERY bad idea that will make our live harder when put in > > > practice - the probabilistic / hallucinating nature of that will make > > > counter-productive and make a lot of overhead for us, maintainers > > > * we should work with local AI "good" partners to build system to > detect > > > and prevent those kind issues and "help" maintainers to battle with > > those - > > > there will be more and more of those cases happening > > > * we should continue reporting those cases to GitHub - this eventually > > > works as well > > > > > > This shows the power of the community! I will keep you posted. > > > > > > J. > > > > > > On Thu, Jan 30, 2025 at 5:26 PM Ryan Hatter > > > <ryan.hat...@astronomer.io.invalid> wrote: > > > > > >> Here's a boilerplate response that I'm going to start using moving > > >> forward: > > >> > > >> Hello, > > >> > > > >> > This Issue appears to be AI-generated spam. If this is a mistake, > > please > > >> > let us know—otherwise, any further spam Issues may lead us to report > > >> your > > >> > account to GitHub. > > >> > > > >> > > >> On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 10:16 AM Jarek Potiuk <ja...@potiuk.com> > wrote: > > >> > > >> > FYI. My friend - who is an engineering manager at GitHub in the "AI" > > >> space > > >> > - saw my post and reached out to their internal team fighting with > > >> Spam. I > > >> > hope they will be able to do something about it as well. > > >> > > > >> > On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 8:21 AM Jarek Potiuk <ja...@potiuk.com> > > wrote: > > >> > > > >> > > > Given what I read about the company, they will most likely > ignore > > >> you. > > >> > > Some people think the company is a scam, and they seem to engage > in > > >> > > unethical business practices. > > >> > > > > >> > > Yeah, but it absolutely does not mean we should give up and do > > >> nothing. > > >> > > > > >> > > Hopefully that will give at least some people a pause when they > > apply > > >> for > > >> > > Outlier.ai jobs. There are a few people there who seem to have a > > >> > "real-ish" > > >> > > history of contribution and they actually came back after our > > reaction > > >> > and > > >> > > apologised as they were tricked into doing it by the instructions > > from > > >> > > Outlier. > > >> > > > > >> > > So at least we can make rounds on awareness of the whole > situation. > > >> > That's > > >> > > already something. Even if they will shrug seeing all the reaction > > >> (which > > >> > > is amazing - I did not know we have so many people caring about > > >> > > maintainers). > > >> > > > > >> > > And hopefully also GitHub (I have a few friends from GitHub > reacting > > >> to > > >> > > it) will take notice and will make it harder for "new" people and > > >> maybe > > >> > > even detect such spam on their own. Eventually we are - and this > is > > >> just > > >> > a > > >> > > beginning - in an arm's race where we will have to employ AI to > > battle > > >> > the > > >> > > AI created by "roque" players - it's inevitable. It will happen, > > >> > absolutely > > >> > > no doubts about it. So we have to strengthen our efforts to make > > >> people > > >> > > aware of those dangers and prepare to react for them. > > >> > > > > >> > > We already (and few other Apache projects) work with DoSu - and > they > > >> are > > >> > > great AI "open-source friendly" company - for quite a few months > > >> their AI > > >> > > is classifying our issues and putting the right labels on them > (and > > >> they > > >> > do > > >> > > a great job on that) - so it's only a matter of their focus (and I > > >> spoke > > >> > to > > >> > > the Devin - the creator of DoSu) on them being able to analyse > those > > >> > issues > > >> > > and maybe even automatically marking them as "AI spam". In fact - > > >> their > > >> > > algorithms already also learn from us marking the issues with the > > "AI > > >> > spam" > > >> > > label. and if they enable this label and we have enough cases, > their > > >> AI > > >> > > will likely automatically help with that "AI spam" to be > > automatically > > >> > set. > > >> > > > > >> > > So ... I think being active, sharing things like that, learning > and > > >> > > thinking how to battle those cases is something we all should > learn > > >> how > > >> > to > > >> > > do. It will be needed. This is just a canary in the mine. > > >> > > > > >> > > J. > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 12:57 AM Justin Mclean < > > >> jus...@classsoftware.com > > >> > > > > >> > > wrote: > > >> > > > > >> > >> Hi, > > >> > >> > > >> > >> Given what I read about the company, they will most likely ignore > > >> you. > > >> > >> Some people think the company is a scam, and they seem to engage > in > > >> > >> unethical business practices. > > >> > >> > > >> > >> Kind Regards, > > >> > >> Justin > > >> > >> > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >> > >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@airflow.apache.org > > >> > >> For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@airflow.apache.org > > >> > >> > > >> > >> > > >> > > > >> > > > > > >
