Except I don’t want them to stop using AI to help them write code. I want responsible use. AI is a new tool, but brings new potential benefits as well as new potential dangers.
We already have a policy, which you’ve been pointed at several times. I would absolutely add text pointing out the dangers of plagiarism, which I don’t think our policy currently mentions. Probably because the author(s) thought it was “too obvious” to call out explicitly. But contributors come from many backgrounds and levels of experience, and “explicit is better than implicit”.
The policy already points out
As with using any tool, the resulting contribution is the responsibility of the contributor
Nobody gets a free pass. But we’re focused on outcomes, not on the processes by which outcomes are obtained. I think that’s the right way to go. Of course you’re free to disagree.
I’m grateful you raised the issue(s)! They’re real and important. I happen to be with those who believe “so ban it!” not only wouldn’t help, it would hurt, by driving those who do use bots to work at disguising the origins.
I would instead encourage people who use bots in their submitted work to be very open and up-front about it. That won’t happen if it’s banned, or even stigmatized. A comment saying “The following function was mostly written by Claude AI” would be a high-value clue for more experienced reviewers to focus on potential license violations.
WIthout such up-front disclosure, who would notice? Especially as AI improves, telltale signs of “AI slop” will diminish. My own favorite bot has learned my style so well that I have a hard time looking at my own private code projects and remembering which parts were prototypes written by the bot and which by me.
I haven’t yet contributed such code to any pubic repositories (well, apart from my own), but doing so is inevitable. When the time comes, I’ll give full credit to the bot(s) that materially helped with various parts. If a project rejects the code based on just that, well, that’s their decision to live with. I’ll move on to other projects with more nuanced policies.