Re: Is AI-generated code changing free software?

[Albert Lee]

   Here's the conclusion of a well-timed study on the impact of using AI
   code gen tools in free software projects:
   [1]https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-st
   udy/
   "When developers are allowed to use AI tools, they take 19% longer to
   complete issues—a significant slowdown that goes against developer
   beliefs and expert forecasts. This gap between perception and reality
   is striking: developers expected AI to speed them up by 24%, and even
   after experiencing the slowdown, they still believed AI had sped them
   up by 20%."
   -Albert

   On Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 14:38 Lars Noodén via libreplanet-discuss
   <[2]libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org> wrote:

     On 7/7/25 04:17, Akira Urushibata wrote:
     > Maybe I'm not looking hard enough.  If anybody can point out to
     good
     > examples of AI usage in free software development, I'd like to
     know.
     Hi, Akira,
     Yes, LLM-based output has been affecting free software development
     for a
     while.  Daniel Stenberg of cURL fame has written about its impact
     several times with clear examples.  Here are two posts about it:
     "The I in LLM stands for intelligence"

     [3]https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/01/02/the-i-in-llm-stands-for-in
     telligence/
     "Curl takes action against time-wasting AI bug reports"
       [4]https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/curl_ai_bug_reports/
     As result, the cURL project has taken to banning accounts which get
     caught submitting AI slop in the place of bug reports:
     "Contribute to the curl project!"
       [5]https://curl.se/dev/contribute.html#on-ai-use-in-curl
     Now if you are looking for /positive/ examples the effects of AI
     slop in
     free software projects, I think your hunch is correct and there may
     not
     be any.
     Going back to your question about the beast in Redmond, which
     although
     proprietary, it shows that LLMs get in the way of development, at
     best.
     One can conclude that because competition there between departments
     and
     even employees is so cutthroat that if there had been even the
     slightest
     advantage from using LLM slop oneself, then it would be found all
     over
     the place.  However, because LLM slop output does not help, you now
     see
     the creation of mandates there for the remaining employees to force
     them
     to try to (or pretend to) use LLM slop:
     "Microsoft Makes AI Usage Mandatory for Employees as Performance
     Reviews
     Face Overhaul"

     [6]https://medium.com/@hamza_83953/microsoft-makes-ai-usage-mandator
     y-for-employees-as-performance-reviews-face-overhaul-8f8cc020f637
     I've only ever done limited scripting myself, albeit over a longer
     period.  Over that time I gather that while typing in working code
     is a
     challenge, understanding and defining the problem(s) to be solved
     and
     then breaking them down into small units is much harder and so is
     documenting the code as you go along.
     Those two aspects are nothing which plausible sentence generators
     and
     plagiarism engines can help with, even if their attribution-stripped
     output does seem to compile.  Currently LLM coding is a scam which
     is
     being perpetrated because so few understand ICT and, because of the
     influence of Redmond against education, that number is declining.
     Software freedom has been slowing that decline but Software Freedom
     promoting groups need to team up with educational projects and eject
     the
     productivity killing and knowledge killing microsofters or at least
     keep
     them at bay so as to turn that around and /increase/ the numbers of
     those who understand and can use ICT.
     /Lars
     cc: Akira Because of the infamous moderation latency on this list.
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     s

References

   1. https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/
   2. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   3. 
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/01/02/the-i-in-llm-stands-for-intelligence/
   4. https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/curl_ai_bug_reports/
   5. https://curl.se/dev/contribute.html#on-ai-use-in-curl
   6. 
https://medium.com/@hamza_83953/microsoft-makes-ai-usage-mandatory-for-employees-as-performance-reviews-face-overhaul-8f8cc020f637
   7. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   8. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss