Re: A policy on use of AI-generated content in Debian
Hi Russ,
On Thu, May 02, 2024 at 11:59:10AM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Tiago Bortoletto Vaz <tiago@debian.org> writes:
>
> > I personally agree with the author's rationale on the aspects pointed
> > out (copyright, quality and ethical ones). But at this point I guess we
> > might have more questions than answers, that's why I think it'd be
> > helpful to have some input before suggesting any concrete proposals.
> > Perhaps the most important step now is to get an idea of how Debian
> > folks actually feels about this matter. And how we feel about moving in
> > a similar direction to what the gentoo project did.
>
> I'm dubious of the Gentoo approach because it is (as they admit)
> unenforceable, which to me means that it's not a great policy. A position
> statement, maybe, but that's a different sort of thing.
Right, note that they acknowledged this policy is a working in progress. Not
perfect, but 'something needed to be done, quickly'. It's hard to find a
balance here, but I kind of share this sense of urgency.
Also, I agree that a statement is indeed a more appropriate tool for the
circumstance. Although I mention Gentoo's policy, I acknowledge that I should
have worded better the title of my first message, as proposing a policy (in
Debian terms a policy is really a *Policy* and has huge implications!) didn't
reflect very well my intentions.
[...]
> About the only statement that I've wanted to make so far is to say that
> anyone relying on AI to summarize important project resources like Debian
> Policy or the Developers Guide or whatnot is taking full responsibility
> for any resulting failures. If you ask an AI to read Policy for you and
> it spits out nonsense or lies, this is not something the Policy Editors
> have any time or bandwidth to deal with.
This point resonates with problems we might be facing already, for instance
in the NM process and also in Debconf submissions (there's no point of going
into details here because so far we can't proof anything, and even if we could,
of course we wouldn't bring any of the involved to the public arena). So I'm
actually more concerned about LLM being mindlessly applied in our communication
processes (NM, bts, debconf, irc, planet, wiki, website, debian.net stuff, etc)
than one using some AI-assisted code in our infra, at least for now.
Again, I correct myself and emphasize that I would rather discuss a possible
statement than a policy for Debian on this matter.
Bests,
--
tvaz
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