This policy is a copy of what QEMU project is using [1] as there is no reason to use different policy, only modification is changing the project name and link to DCO. [1] <https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/devel/code-provenance.html#use-of-ai-content-generators> Signed-off-by: Pavel Hrdina <phrdina@redhat.com> --- docs/hacking.rst | 52 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 52 insertions(+) diff --git a/docs/hacking.rst b/docs/hacking.rst index 825b8b83d2..5f0f867b9f 100644 --- a/docs/hacking.rst +++ b/docs/hacking.rst @@ -90,6 +90,58 @@ formal ID documents, but should not be anonymous, nor misrepresent who you are. The presence of this line attests that the contributor has read the above linked DCO and agrees with its statements. +Use of AI content generators +============================ + +TL;DR: + + **Current libvirt project policy is to DECLINE any contributions which are + believed to include or derive from AI generated content. This includes + ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Llama and similar tools.** + +The increasing prevalence of AI-assisted software development results in a +number of difficult legal questions and risks for software projects, including +libvirt. Of particular concern is content generated by `Large Language Models +<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_model>`__ (LLMs). + +The libvirt community requires that contributors certify their patch submissions +are made in accordance with the rules of the `Developer Certificate of +Origin`_. + +To satisfy the DCO, the patch contributor has to fully understand the +copyright and license status of content they are contributing to libvirt. With +AI content generators, the copyright and license status of the output is +ill-defined with no generally accepted, settled legal foundation. + +Where the training material is known, it is common for it to include large +volumes of material under restrictive licensing/copyright terms. Even where +the training material is all known to be under open source licenses, it is +likely to be under a variety of terms, not all of which will be compatible +with libvirt's licensing requirements. + +How contributors could comply with DCO terms (b) or (c) for the output of AI +content generators commonly available today is unclear. The libvirt project is +not willing or able to accept the legal risks of non-compliance. + +The libvirt project thus requires that contributors refrain from using AI +content generators on patches intended to be submitted to the project, and +will decline any contribution if use of AI is either known or suspected. + +This policy does not apply to other uses of AI, such as researching APIs or +algorithms, static analysis, or debugging, provided their output is not to be +included in contributions. + +Examples of tools impacted by this policy includes GitHub's CoPilot, OpenAI's +ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Meta's Code Llama, and code/content +generation agents which are built on top of such tools. + +This policy may evolve as AI tools mature and the legal situation is +clarified. In the meanwhile, requests for exceptions to this policy will be +evaluated by the libvirt project on a case by case basis. To be granted an +exception, a contributor will need to demonstrate clarity of the license and +copyright status for the tool's output in relation to its training model and +code, to the satisfaction of the project maintainers. + Further reading =============== -- 2.49.0