As long as they don't allow AI bots to submit changes, this is probably a realistic decision. Assuming that code generated by AI is never going to be copyrighted by the AI companies. In light of this uncertainty I don't understand why they don't require AI code to be flagged as such. That bit seems like a really bad idea, legally speaking.
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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There is no such thing as "responsible use of GenAI". That said, I understand the decision in the face of even Linus Torvalds allowing AI-generated code into the kernel. If Debian would have banned AI code entirely they would have had to fork every single thing they include in their distro, wipe the AI code from it, and then work to develop it further themselves. It would be too gargantuan a task.
None of the proposals would have banned AI usage in upstream projects, but banning AI usage in the context of the Debian project was on the table
At first I was afraid that they would allow for an irresponsible use. But no, they explicitly say "responsible", so that danger is no more. I'm very much relieved.
Also they explicitly mention that humans will remain accountable. Not Nature, or Fate, or the gods; mark that. Good thinking there!
Problems solved.
They basically pass the buck to the individual developer without taking any responsibility themselves.
Debian acknowledges that the legal status of material produced by generative AI systems remains the subject of ongoing discussion in many jurisdictions, including questions relating to copyright, authorship, licensing, and potential reproduction of training material.
The responsibility for every contribution rests with the contributor who submits it, who remains accountable for its technical quality, legal acceptability, and suitability for inclusion in Debian.
"It may be illegal or against FOSS, but that's up to you to decide, good luck I guess"
The only question I have is why. Genuinely.
Debian exists. It has existed for decades. It works. "Oh but AI makes it faster" so fucking what? We didn't need "faster" for years whilst it worked fine, it's not a product on a deadline.
No community distro has the capacity to fork thousands of packages and maintain them. That's what a true no Ai policy would require. I also have to add that the Linux kernel itself would need to be forked and then maintained. Just the latter point alone is enough to make all this moot.
No this was for Debian only.
Completely missing the point.
That's true. Nonetheless the maintainers seem to see AI as a valid way to reduce their workload.
As someone who has done package management for a distro at one point in my life... after the initial push, it is so incredibly boring.
I think AI should do all of it. I'm entirely certain that things would be better, not worse, if we did. 99% of problems related to that stuff is because it's so fucking boring that humans just simply cannot pay the kind of attention it requires to be safe.
Current AI is still like that incredibly knowledgeable senior dev with a drug problem. Everything done by AI still needs to be checked by a human in case the AI just hallucinated the wildest shit even though it did the same thing just right ten times before.
Right now, AI is a great tool. It will probably become reliable enough to replace human maintainers. But no one knows when that happens.
Good thing I don't use debian.
i'm actually a little surprised, given their history about being so hardcore about dfsg compliance.
This email from 2016 by jwz springs to mind.
I guess you want Debian to be the kind of operation that uses the work of others while blatantly and explicitly ignoring the wishes of the person who did the actual creative work.
I am increasingly of the opinion that all software developers and adjacent people are fucking scum unless proven otherwise.
Oh no, the people creating free shit for you to use that's not monetized in any way, want to reduce their workloads. Scum!
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as a dev I second this opinion.
I was surprised by how many were Trump supporters.
then I was surprised at how many were anti-vax.
now I'm not even surprised.
Responsible use of llms can't be achieved. Can you verify that all of your training data are square with its creators? If not, how is that responsible?
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boooo
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