Re: ballot option: LLM usage accellerates the destruction of our ecosystem (planet earth) and that is a deal-breaker

Holger Levsen <[email protected]> Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:06:27 +0000
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.vote
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Hi,

Lucas informed me of three minor typos which (if this proposal
has reached enough seconds) AIUI Kurt can accept just by me
asking him to fix those. So here they are:

On Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 03:12:43PM +0000, Holger Levsen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm proposing the following ballot option for https://www.debian.org/vote/2026/vote_002
> and thus I'm searching seconds for it.
> 
> (And yes, I'm well aware that this text condemns LLM usage and yet acknowledges
> it... similar to many of us condemning the effects of using planes or cars while
> occasionaly doing so ourselves.)
> 
> 
> 
> ---- start ballot proposal ----
> 
> title: LLM usage accellerates the destruction of our ecosystem (planet earth)
>        and that is a deal-breaker

accellerates -> accelerates
 
> 
> 
> Using its power under Constitution section 4.1(5), the Project issues the
> following statement describing its current position regarding the use of LLM
> (Large Language Models) within Debian.
> 
> We don't have a concern with the LLM _technology_ as such: it's just maths and
> enough training material, which outputs a very large set of numbers that we can
> use to infer new material from existing material. But we cannot talk about the
> LLM technology without talking about who is pushing for its usage, who is doing
> the training and how, what effect those have on our limited resources, and what
> are the economical and political motives of these.
> 
> Foremost we don't understand how anyone can agree that global LLM usage
> accellerates the destruction of our ecosystem, planet earth, and not feel like
> that is a deal-breaker.

accellerates -> accelerates
 
> To often the only response we've seen to this point was that other activities

To -> Too

> are also bad (some even worse) for the climate. How is this even an argument?
> The planet is burning, we should try to stop that as much and as fast as we can!
> If others aren't stopping, isn't that even more reason to compensate for their
> irresponsible actions?
> 
> And while we're on that point: All of our users live on this planet, so
> protecting this planet is a matter of life and death for all of us. In other
> words, caring about something as big as climate change during our Debian work is
> self evident.
> 
> Debian recognizes that LLM *also* raise significant ethical, legal, technical,
> and social concerns. These include questions relating to copyright and
> licensing, privacy, the provenance and quality of generated material, the health
> of Free Software communities, and the long-term consequences of widespread
> reliance on LLM-generated content.
> 
> That said, we would like to emphasize that we condemn LLM (resource) usage but
> not LLM users. Fight the game, but not the players.
> 
> We also acknowledge that LLM usage can be hard if not impossible to detect and
> that Debian as a distribution cannot really impose LLM policies on other
> projects we package and distribute. Therefore this text is just a position
> statement. This said however, we appreciate the disclosure of LLM usage.
> 
> Accordingly, Debian encourages contributors to avoid the use of LLM where
> practical and to prefer human authorship, collaboration, and technical
> understanding over LLM-generated output.
> 
> At the same time, Debian has long relied on the judgment and responsibility of
> its contributors rather than prescribing individual workflows. Contributors
> remain responsible for everything they submit, irrespective of the tools used in
> preparing a contribution. Existing Debian standards regarding quality,
> correctness, licensing, and legal compliance continue to apply.
> 
> The Debian project has always recognized the commitment and professionalism of
> its members. All contributions are under the responsibility of the Debian
> Contributor making it, no matter the technology they have behind. We trust all
> Debian Developers, Maintainers and Contributors will continue to uphold the high
> quality values that have distinguished our project from its onset.
> 
> Please keep being excellent to each other and the only planet we have.
> 
> 
> 
> ---- end ballot proposal ----
> 
> with thanks to Didier 'OdyX' Raboud for https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2026/08/msg00101.html
> and Bas Wijnen for https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2026/08/msg00118.html
> and Tobias Frost for https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2026/07/msg00343.html
> 
> Obviously written without the help of LLM.


-- 
cheers,
	Holger

 ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
 ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁  holger@(debian|reproducible-builds|layer-acht).org
 ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀  OpenPGP: B8BF54137B09D35CF026FE9D 091AB856069AAA1C
 ⠈⠳⣄

Deadly heatwaves, floods, storms, wildfires, droughts, crop failures... 
This is not “the new normal”. We’re at the very beginning of a climate and
ecological emergency, and extreme weather events will only become more and
more frequent.
signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, 833 B)