> I'm not anti-ai but I am firmly anti-make-people-read-llm-output-I-didn't-read-myself, and this breaks this.
This here might hit the nail on the head exactly in terms of what the biggest FOSSes gripe with LLMs with might be: not the fact people use it but rather how it hinders the communication.
If you use it to help the write code, but you explain things in your own words or, at very least, redact and trim LLMs output, it's fine.
If you, however, just drop a wall of text at someone and expect they act on its b/s, this is lazy to the point it borders with microagression.
You wouldn't expect a distinguished professor explain basic maths to a student, and we shouldn't expect actual developers address Copilot's stupid, unredacted hallucinations or otherwise unrelated remarks.
This works for patches submission, too: you should be outright banned for submitting stuff you didn't bother to double check and properly document.
Yeah AI is the relevant stand in but ultimately this is about one group of people being lazy and trying to shift more work onto another group of people. It just so happens that they are using AI to do it
I guess I have to temper my own statement a bit. I do see situations where I would generate and send automated LLM messages. Probably to reply to generated unsolicited messages or pull-requests.
But to upload to debian new's queue you already need to have pre-approval, it's a different situation from e.g. a public git repository that anyone can push to.
To help classify between human and llm-generated ones? I don't know, and you're probably right than in this case a fixed message would be better.
Another situation where I would use llms to generate messages is if we've mutually agreed to do that. For example automated review messages at work, if we've agreed that it would be a part of our workflow.
A good rule of thumb might be unsolicited vs solicited llm messages.
It's disingenuous to compare LLM outputs to script generated ones. They have more differences than similarities.
A script is reproducible, and fixable. They won't waste your time hallucinating issues. Note that this is different from "being wrong". A script can be wrong, and you can spend time debugging it, but that time is not wasted. You can fix the script, remove wrong rules, whatever.
Also, nothing exists in a vacuum. Script-generated review comments were never a widespread societal issue, LLMs unfeterred content generation is.
GR resulted in Proposal E, Choice 5: Responsible Use of Generative AI. Clearly stating: "Any such automated process should be overseen by a human who remains accountable for its behavior and output."
i wozld not care for most other actors even in the FOSS universe to swallow their pride and put LLM into their workflows.
However, Debian proved in countless occasions before that they can and will go the route that is right, not the one that is easy, even if it makes everything slow or cumbersome and I think thats a good thing and the reason why so many others build their stuff in top of it.
I think some developers are kinda dense or something, and don't understand that shoving AI content in people's faces is simply rude.
In recent versions of iTerm2 for example, when using the plain old menubar and hovering over some items, panels appear showing awful sloppy AI images. WTF? Was the developer always tasteless or did they get a taste bypass?
> spend my valuable developer time (this is my free time)...
Lesson for us all is that if we do not own the thing/project/etc, things can suddenly change without our decision, and all time we put into it might become a waste-of-effort retroactively
I don't think there's another way. Everybody is being spammed with Gen AI outputs and the only even to it seems like a paradox way to fight it is with LLMs of some kind or go around it like what the EU is trying to do with watermarking and then detect AI and have different processing for it. I kinda think we could end up there, but we are still not there.
This is a strongly phrased message but the problem could be solved with an opt-out.
Even something as simple as writing the phrase "No LLMs please" somewhere in the upload, that if present, prevents LLMs being triggered. Nothing elaborate and it preserves the default-on behavior the team seems to want.
I think this the wrong question to ask. The original complaint suggests that llm setup used is largely unknown in terms of how it organized. For all you know, it may be splitting and sending different requests to unpaid gemini, local 8b qwen or paid claude/astra. None of it is known, listed or noted as expected to be somewhat stable.
The question is not even about the setup in terms of hardware/software. The question is about organizational structuring of its processes.
I’m still sad that Debian is now integrating (external?) LLM in the build process which seems antithetical to the core values of Debian (as pointed out).
There is no alternative to Debian for me. I’m ready to justy throw out all my computers and become a goat herder at this point.
PS I’ll remove memory and storage from said computers to pay for land and goats before I chuck them out of my window.
Picking at random a successful and unsuccessful LLM-generated
review from the dashboard, the successful review consists of 734 words
(~2.5 printed pages) and the unsuccessful review weighs in at a
whopping 1,535 words (~5 printed pages). I haven't tried to fully read
either report, nor spend brain cycles checking if the LLM output is
legitimate or not. I just want to emphasize the many orders of
magnitude change in review size that's being generated, and that
uploaders may need to spend time trying to review and understand in
this new process.
A bit rude to expect people to swallow 5 pages of slop to figure out why review failed.
EDIT: made my comment more constructive, but originally asked if any distro has adopted a hard anti-AI stance.
>>Any distro that have adopted a hard anti-AI stance?
Yes all the BSD's, and i think with the best explanation, since one cannot proof what license the llm's output has, one cannot legally implement the output under the BSD-License.
But what about Linux? They just dont care, they have the money, corporate backing and with that, all the power.
They also have a reward system that punishes people for ignoring the llm review (by pushing their submission lower in the queue).
This here might hit the nail on the head exactly in terms of what the biggest FOSSes gripe with LLMs with might be: not the fact people use it but rather how it hinders the communication.
If you use it to help the write code, but you explain things in your own words or, at very least, redact and trim LLMs output, it's fine.
If you, however, just drop a wall of text at someone and expect they act on its b/s, this is lazy to the point it borders with microagression.
You wouldn't expect a distinguished professor explain basic maths to a student, and we shouldn't expect actual developers address Copilot's stupid, unredacted hallucinations or otherwise unrelated remarks.
This works for patches submission, too: you should be outright banned for submitting stuff you didn't bother to double check and properly document.
But to upload to debian new's queue you already need to have pre-approval, it's a different situation from e.g. a public git repository that anyone can push to.
Why would you use an LLM instead of a fixed message?
Another situation where I would use llms to generate messages is if we've mutually agreed to do that. For example automated review messages at work, if we've agreed that it would be a part of our workflow.
A good rule of thumb might be unsolicited vs solicited llm messages.
A script is reproducible, and fixable. They won't waste your time hallucinating issues. Note that this is different from "being wrong". A script can be wrong, and you can spend time debugging it, but that time is not wasted. You can fix the script, remove wrong rules, whatever.
Also, nothing exists in a vacuum. Script-generated review comments were never a widespread societal issue, LLMs unfeterred content generation is.
GR resulted in Proposal E, Choice 5: Responsible Use of Generative AI. Clearly stating: "Any such automated process should be overseen by a human who remains accountable for its behavior and output."
In recent versions of iTerm2 for example, when using the plain old menubar and hovering over some items, panels appear showing awful sloppy AI images. WTF? Was the developer always tasteless or did they get a taste bypass?
https://files.catbox.moe/5ivkhw.png
Lesson for us all is that if we do not own the thing/project/etc, things can suddenly change without our decision, and all time we put into it might become a waste-of-effort retroactively
I contribute to open source software because it improves stuff I use and/or care about.
It seems too pessimistic, IMO, to abstain because things could potentially change to the worse, sometime in the future.
Patience and persistence helps, but it can be daunting IMO
Even something as simple as writing the phrase "No LLMs please" somewhere in the upload, that if present, prevents LLMs being triggered. Nothing elaborate and it preserves the default-on behavior the team seems to want.
The question is not even about the setup in terms of hardware/software. The question is about organizational structuring of its processes.
There is no alternative to Debian for me. I’m ready to justy throw out all my computers and become a goat herder at this point.
PS I’ll remove memory and storage from said computers to pay for land and goats before I chuck them out of my window.
Picking at random a successful and unsuccessful LLM-generated review from the dashboard, the successful review consists of 734 words (~2.5 printed pages) and the unsuccessful review weighs in at a whopping 1,535 words (~5 printed pages). I haven't tried to fully read either report, nor spend brain cycles checking if the LLM output is legitimate or not. I just want to emphasize the many orders of magnitude change in review size that's being generated, and that uploaders may need to spend time trying to review and understand in this new process.
A bit rude to expect people to swallow 5 pages of slop to figure out why review failed.
EDIT: made my comment more constructive, but originally asked if any distro has adopted a hard anti-AI stance.
Yes all the BSD's, and i think with the best explanation, since one cannot proof what license the llm's output has, one cannot legally implement the output under the BSD-License.
But what about Linux? They just dont care, they have the money, corporate backing and with that, all the power.
Linux itself is in any case tainted, but some of us care to contain the plague however possible.