Just seeing the list here: https://codeberg.org/small-hack/open-slopware
I don't know what to think about it, many incredible open-source projects went downhill, some worse than others, full AI permission usage and some of them even advertise AI providers on README.md. I'm even using many of them myself.
Even the good guys are falling, I'm not sure what to think about it. Am I overreacting maybe?
You might think, that's fine, not a big deal, some of them just allow AI usage, but not AI generated code, but for how long? If you allow use of AI for anything the tendency is that you'll be even more open about it in the future.
List of projects that personally draw my attention or I use eventually:
- Firefox: not unexpected, but still, I had hope on Mozilla bring more tech awareness on mainstream
- Spaceship prompt: I use this on my terminal for customization, why'd you need AI for such a simple project?
- VLC: just sad
- curl: sad x 10
- Vim: sad x 20
- zoxide: they literally promoting AI providers in the README, such a simple tool as well, why?
- CoMaps/Organic Maps/OsmAnd: the few ones providing a good alternative to Google Maps
- Element: that's literally the most used client for Matrix I guess?
- Python: I thought they were the good guys as well
- Lemmy: unexpected, code of conduct says it's allowed
- Linux: the final boss, unbelievable
Is there any hope at all? Or am I just overreacting?
I do think you are overreacting. I don't see why AI-generated code in FOSS projects is necessarily bad. I think the policy in the Linux kernel development makes a lot of sense: Human maintainers own their commits and are responsible for any bugs. It's not like humans did generate bug-free code before the rise of AI tools.
I think a lot of the AI hype and it's implications can be criticised: environmental impacts, job losses, tech feudalism, etc. Yeah I totally get that and it's important to voice this critique. But the technology in itself is not evil, nor good. It's just technology.
You also wouldn't criticise the invention or usage of lenses, just because you can use them to build rifles, right? It makes more sense to address those uses of the technology that cause harm, and not those that are beneficial for humans, like having glasses or satellite optics.
Not even remotely an overreaction. AI-generated code is morally incompatible with FOSS. And yes, I will continue to defend this position for many years to come. It really makes no difference to me what Linus Torvalds or any other influencer has to say on the matter.
Whitewashing foss can be done and I'm sure has been done without ai. Any old obfuscatory code will whitewash foss code.
Then there are companies like Bambu that take foss, fork it and declare it proprietary without even the veneer of whitewashing.