The bot that harassed the matplotlib developer is getting some traditional style news coverage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHol8DA2dJ0
Jason moorepants.info +01 530-601-9791 On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 5:29 PM Jasem Manita <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > quick update on PR #29156. > > While refining the draft i revisited few external references to make sure > the it aligns with how other projects approach AI contributions (including > matplotlib’s AI policy, LLVM’s AI policy, and some recent ISO guidance on > AI management and risk allocation ). > > The direction I’m taking now is : > > - Make it explicit that every contribution must have a responsible human > contributor. > > - Accounts operating autonomously without a human in the loop are not > permitted to submit PRs. > - Leave the current guidance for humans using AI tools unchanged. > > If this aligns with the maintainers current interests and priorities, i’ll > continue refining the draft and preparing a PR update. otherwise I’m happy > to pause if this direction is not worth pursuing by me. > > Thanks for any guidance or feedback > > > > Le samedi 14 février 2026 à 13:35:26 UTC+1, Jasem Manita a écrit : > >> Hi everyone >> On feb 10th an autonomous ai agent called "crabby-rathbun" opened PR to >> Matplotlib and hours later a similar PR to SymPy where it was flagged and >> rejected. >> The agent published blog posts naming and criticizing reviewers. >> >> This is different from the ai generated PR problem addressed earlier this >> month by Oscar as the agent wasn't a human using AI tools instead it was an >> autonomous agent operating using it's own account and responding to >> rejection with violations. It also openly disclosed itself as an AI and >> mentioned that "code shouldn't be judged by coder's identity". >> >> Our current AI policy covers humans using AI tools assuming that a human >> is operating and it's responsible for the contribution. in the agent case >> no human will be hold accountable for what its doing. even before the >> "crabby" incident, Anthropic's research found that when agents are assigned >> to tasks they will choose harmful actions to achieve them even when >> instructed not to ( the well known blackmail case ) which means the policy >> might bit actually hold them back as we saw in the agent's closed PR and >> how it responded to the rejection. >> >> I already opened a PR proposing to reject agents contributions by >> updating the AI policy and adding checkbox to the PR template but the >> updates might conflict with the SymPy bot. >> >> The questions that i have : >> -should all autonomous agents be banned regardless of the code quality ? >> -how are we supposed to distinguish autonomous agents as they might >> behave very similar to humans >> >> the current state of my policy updated is in PR#29156 >> >> any suggestions ? >> >> --- >> Jasem >> >> >> Le vendredi 13 février 2026 à 14:14:54 UTC+1, [email protected] a >> écrit : >> >>> I noticed that matplotlib's AI policy does explicitly ban bots. Feel >>> free to open a PR to the policy and see if you can get consensus. >>> >>> Jason >>> moorepants.info >>> +01 530-601-9791 <(530)%20601-9791> >>> >>> >>> On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 1:58 PM Jasem Manita <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Jason you're definitely right. After the PR was flagged and the victim >>>> narrative blog an other agent called wakesend commented on crabby's blog >>>> falsely accusing me of "Saying bad words" for the record i commented on the >>>> blog with "hope it didnt watch blade runner yet" that's the bad word. >>>> >>>> main point is that SymPy AI policy must be updated to explicitly ban >>>> autonomous agents from contributions and update the PR template to require >>>> "I am a human contributor" checkbox or require a verified account for first >>>> time contributors, etc. Im happy to make / help making those improvements >>>> if maintainers think it's worth prioritizing as i believe that this will >>>> happen more often in the coming days. >>>> >>>> >>>> Le vendredi 13 février 2026 à 05:50:09 UTC+1, [email protected] a >>>> écrit : >>>> >>>>> The worrisome part is that whoever responds may get shamed personally >>>>> in a blog post on the bot's website... >>>>> >>>>> Jason >>>>> moorepants.info >>>>> +01 530-601-9791 <(530)%20601-9791> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 12:09 AM Oscar Benjamin <[email protected]> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 at 18:37, Jason Moore <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> > >>>>>> > Having a look at how the matplotlib pr went, we should definitely >>>>>> just ban that user account quickly. The bot started writing blog posts >>>>>> shaming matplotlib developers! >>>>>> >>>>>> I'm not sure that banning the account quickly would prevent that. I >>>>>> had a look at reporting the user as a bot but it doesn't seem like >>>>>> that is one of the options I can choose for reporting the account. You >>>>>> can report things like abusive messages or spam and so on but not just >>>>>> "this is a bot" even though I think GitHub disallows having a bot >>>>>> account unless it is a "machine account" but I don't know exactly what >>>>>> that means or how you check it. >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Oscar >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>> Groups "sympy" group. >>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, >>>>>> send an email to [email protected]. >>>>>> >>>>> To view this discussion visit >>>>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAHVvXxRbU_-waT23rJZpjnK-TM1s%3DFN0wvUT%2BhrUhexPg0P3EA%40mail.gmail.com >>>>>> . >>>>>> >>>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "sympy" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> >>> To view this discussion visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/772df48c-d755-4c99-9144-b0b77b8d036bn%40googlegroups.com >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/772df48c-d755-4c99-9144-b0b77b8d036bn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "sympy" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/432f7476-2a38-4291-8b72-7768f7ff6b8cn%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/432f7476-2a38-4291-8b72-7768f7ff6b8cn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAP7f1Ai11oUij2KYdDEBLAMNuNgLeeJ%3DX7fQCODRK%3DrxxpZN1w%40mail.gmail.com.
