Debian dismisses AI-contributions policy

Posted May 10, 2024 18:48 UTC (Fri) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75)
In reply to: Debian dismisses AI-contributions policy by carlosrodfern
Parent article: Debian dismisses AI-contributions policy

There are two issues: the workload issue you highlighted and a copyright question that might be more legally significant. The thing about the workload is not unique to AI, though. You could have the same problem from human contributors, and there are already problems with fuzzers spamming projects with low quality bug reports. There needs to be some kind of policy about that general category that isn't specific to AI.

The copyright question is a separate one. Or rather copyright questions, since there are at least two. The first is whether AI-generated material can be copyrighted. That's significant because many FOSS licences depend on copyright. Probably more significant is whether AI is violating the copyright of the material used to train it and how that affects the legal status of its output. Debian could potentially be opening itself to ruinous lawsuits if it incorporates AI-generated material it turns out not to have the legal right to use.