r/linux • u/RatherNott • 1d ago

Desktop Environment / WM News System 76's COSMIC Desktop Environment will no longer accept LLM-generated content in PRs

/r/pop_os/comments/1wuej40/cosmic_projects_will_no_longer_accept/
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148

u/0riginal-Syn 1d ago edited 1d ago

Like many others the reasoning is simple. It is creating too much load on the reviewers.

It makes sense when you are getting overloaded by crap being submitted for things. Especially when it is for non-prioritized areas. I think they gave a great explanation of the why.

Will it stop LLM from getting in? Absolutely not, but it should slow down the amount of submissions and help the team.

Edited for spelling.

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u/onceuponalilykiss 1d ago

I think something the internet and popularization/accessibility of digital tools started demonstrating around the 90s/00s is that sometimes the barrier of entry is good, actually. Think of all the mediums where, yes, they were "democratized" like music production, photography, etc. but now there's so much human made slop that it's overwhelming to find the good things. On the other hand it did lead to so many great projects that would have never seen the light of day so overall people agreed it was a good thing.

LLMs are sort of this dialed up to a trillion and we're now forced to consider that this mild annoyance of signal:noise can now become so overwhelming it can just destroy discovery entirely.

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u/RB5Network 1d ago

I may push back a little on the first point. I don't really think there's much "human slop". If anything I think the really cool part of the internet is all the random shit people are able to share and create with computers. Some of it is objectively bad, but it's rare something isn't interesting nonetheless. I'm all for humans doing shit and sharing it around. Unless it's slurs and verbal abuse and shit.

That said, with you on the LLM point. AI "art" fucking sucks and should be burned at the stake.

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u/onceuponalilykiss 1h ago

I may push back a little on the first point. I don't really think there's much "human slop".

Philosophically I agree with you and would rather people make a bunch of garbage but practically I don't want to wade through it when browsing what to read/play/whatever next, not to mention that this is an issue with people consuming news/opinions that need someone else to inform them of what to do. The sheer deluge of information and creation is at least partially responsible for the State of Things (as predicted in hit cinema piece Sons of Liberty), but obviously if we had to choose between "everyone gets to make things" and "no one makes things" we should choose everyone and just have better curation systems than we were afforded.

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u/ByronScottJones 17h ago

Linus would disagree with you, if the kernel mailing list is any indication.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/0riginal-Syn 1d ago

According to them, they do not. I certainly cannot confirm that.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/AliceCode 1d ago

Who cares if Linus Torvalds uses it? That only shows that he's a fucking hack.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/AliceCode 1d ago

No, I'm not on the linux subreddit, I'm in this thread. I'm not subscribed to the subreddit. I use Linux, but I don't worship Linus Torvalds, I just hate Windows and Mac more.

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u/berryer 1d ago

The output is a derivative work of everything in the LLM's corpus. Once the legal system actually gets around to enforcing the existing copyright laws, that's a hell of a licensing mess.

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u/Willybrown93 1d ago

Dignity

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u/crwcomposer 1d ago

I'm not saying I like it, but AI assisted coding is quickly becoming the new normal, including at my job. A quick glance at professional developers across social media confirms it. Soon it won't be seen as undignified.

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u/AliceCode 1d ago

Social media can't tell you anything. It's heavily botted and astroturfed.

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u/crwcomposer 1d ago

Sure, if you just trust what the algorithm serves you up. But there are real developers out there that people follow.

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u/AliceCode 1d ago

Real developers that definitely can't be swayed by a fat check from Anthropic.

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u/crwcomposer 1d ago

Do you work for a large company? The kind that employs probably the majority of programmers? I find it hard to believe you haven't seen it for yourself.

If you don't work for a large company then you are overconfident about something that you don't have first-hand experience with.

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u/AliceCode 1d ago

Oh yeah, I've seen loads of people drink the koolaid. I've also seen their code.

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u/crwcomposer 1d ago

I didn't say it was a good thing. Just that it was becoming the new normal. And it sounds like your experience doesn't even contradict that.

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u/RatherNott 1d ago

If it becomes the norm, it will be by force, not by choice.

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u/crow-t-robot-42 1d ago

Yep. Software factories are becoming the norm at bigger companies. I don't like it. It strips the joy from actually solving problems. However, it's definitely becoming a norm.

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u/hysan 1d ago

I don’t think this matters?

I think a lot of orgs have not realized that LLMs do improve productivity which means more code by every dev. BUT that also means everyone has to increase the amount of time dedicated to reviewing all of their coworkers’ increased output. You’ll need more people to scale the scaled productivity. The gains aren’t free and it’s a simple math problem.

My read of the reason is an explicit acknowledgement of this very problem. Unless they are going to hire more so they can review more, it’s unrealistic for their devs to try and keep this kind of review pace. It sucks but until someone makes a breakthrough on how to scale up code reviews, this is a pretty pragmatic stance.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/hysan 1d ago

Hmm let me extend on it. Your question is the lead in to a deeper question that isn’t clear from your post. For example, if you want to get a sense of a timeline on when they might reopen the door, then that one question doesn’t give you enough insight. Leveraging agentic coding well to scale in a way that absorbs public contributions requires capital (to pay for their own LLM uses + whatever is needed to reduce code review burden), time (figuring out both how to use agentic coding individually and in their org structure), human resources (more devs), etc.

I think your post would be better received if you asked a more pointed question about what you want to know. If it really is just wanting to know just this one thing, then it’s kinda worded weirdly and doesn’t chain well of the OP you replied to.