On 2026-03-05 17:45, Greg Hogan wrote:
On Wed, Mar 4, 2026 at 2:26 AM Nguyễn Gia Phong via Development of GNU
the actions of others are not limiting your
freedom (as noted earlier by Ekaitz). The same is true of LLMs. Some
will use them, some will avoid them, and the next generation will be
AI-native and some day replace us all.
If the concern is PR slop, I think we can agree that the solution to
Guix suffering under the weight of version updates and minor edits is
not more PRs but improved and further automated processes. We would do
well to focus on what we need to build rather than argue over whether
the labor should be manual or machine-assisted.
Yeah, exactly. As I said, we don't have the PR slop problem yet, and
even if we did, we already have mechanisms to deal with it. There are no
new problems, only a few problems we already had (and maybe we were
overlooking) have been augmented.
In this conversation is like we are looking for special cases because we
are emotionally compelled to do something, but I don't think that's the
best position to take action from, in any matter of life.
The main discussion line I see here focuses on a political approach,
policing, encouraging, or whatever you want to call it.
I'm a simple man. A sinner, if you might. So I don't feel entitled to
tell people what to do.
We all have different ways to understand what collaborating in a project
like Guix is. I have recently realized that my way was not in sync with
other people's, and that may explain how I'm feeling about this
conversation and about the things that I shared in person in FOSDEM,
years ago.
The fact that people don't subscribe to all you say doesn't have to be a
reason to push them out, even if slightly. A few arguments I see here
are pretty much in that line.
What are we going to do with the dude that doesn't know how to code very
well but thanks to the AI is able to send the first package to Guix and
then start to become better at coding by himself?
What about that girl that didn't have the chance to study but using the
AI is able to read a little bit about programming?
Are we going to tell them not to do this or that because collaborating
in Guix is only for people that have a true ethical spirit?
We all are thinking about the techbro that sends a 20kLoC PR done by
Claude and signs it as Claude's human. Of course, we have an answer for
it. But that's not the only case AI is going to produce.
I believe, if we are going to collaborate we should care about each
other, and not only like "if you don't care about your PR don't expect
me to care" but in a deeper way: "what made you have to use AI?" "wasn't
documentation good enough?" "why don't you talk to me instead?"[^1]
All AI users are not the same and trying to make a public statement
about so we don't push away people we shouldn't push away is not easy.
This conversation, as is, also might make people feel we *all* have a
very strong stance about AI usage, making them keep distance from us if
they don't.
I don't use AI for programming and I dislike it. But I can understand
why other people would. As long as their contributions are good, I have
no say in their behavior. Having one child is exhausting, I couldn't
imagine how exhausting could be to have millions of them. And I'm not
such a good father after all[^2].
From my side: I'm out. I'm out of guix-devel, and will gradually stop
taking part on any governance discussion. This thing is not for me and
probably has never been. Just saying governance to describe what we are
supposed to be doing in Guix makes me cringe[^3].
It has been pushing me away for long, but recently it has became very
clear. What a relief.
Best,
Ekaitz
[^1]: Also, it's not like our project is so approachable one doesn't
need AI to get in. This is not an argument of mine: we have been
repeatedly saying collaborating in Guix had a very high barrier of entry
because of the email workflow. That is an argument we could stretch
forever. If we need people, maybe AI is the best way to get them in
lowering the barrier of entry! (Blasphemy!)
[^2]: I want to remind people that some concerns were raised in the past
because the Software Heritage collaborated with an AI company
(Hugginface). I don't know if that continues to be the case or not, but
it is funny. Isn't it? We give our code, and the code of *ALL software*
packaged in Guix to an AI company so we can now complain.
[^3]: For me, this should be not more than "slight coordination".
