Re: GR -- Allow AI-Assisted Contributions

On Wed Feb 18, 2026 at 11:48 PM GMT, Harlan Lieberman-Berg wrote:
> With all due respect to your work on drafting this, Lucas, I strongly 
> urge us not to go through with a GR on this topic yet.  This is 
> something which both us and the larger free software community is 
> still actively debating, and a GR is a tool for when a decision is 
> ready to be made.  Having a GR on this matter now is premature and 
> will be extremely divisive -- even schismatic.

Respectfully, I disagree that we shouldn't have a GR now, and I hope you 
are wrong that it will be divisive and schismatic.

One reason to do this now: some may view the risks of accepting 
AI/LLM/genAI-produced content into Debian (whether into packaged 
software, or Debian Infrastructure, or elsewhere) to be unknown but we 
may wish to avoid the damage of a "fruit of the poisoned tree" situation 
further down the road. It may be safer to forbid some of these now, and 
relax our position later, than to try to do the opposite.

(Note that this position is not yet reflected in any proposal or 
counter-proposal that I have seen)

A GR need not be the end of a discussion. It can capture a project 
position now, and be refined, reinforced or overturned by subsequent 
work as we move forward, with the benefit of more data and experience.


-- 
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⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Jonathan Dowland
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