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
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.
To often the only response we've seen to this point was that other activities
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
⠈⠳⣄
Which Large Language Model do you prefer? The one that claims trans people don’t
exist or the one that doesn’t want to talk about Tian'anmen Square in 1989?
(@[email protected])
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
