Key consideration: ASF legal guidance on copyright and LLM generated code: https://www.apache.org/legal/generative-tooling.html#include-in-contributions
On Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 7:32 AM Dawid Weiss <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > This email has a few thoughts - loosely connected - and I'm sorry > if it reads like a stream-of-consciousness log but I've meant > to write it for quite some time and today is the tipping point for me > (hello, > Malcolm Gladwell). > > So. As I'm sure you've noticed, more and more code is being generated > these days. I have some thoughts I wanted to share about it. > > # Trust, role models, credibility. > > LLMs change how the open source model works - not just the code > submitted but how we (humans) lack the means to evaluate or assess the > skills of those who submit those patches. In the past, you could build > your assessment of what a person knows/ can do by looking at what > they contributed. Even if the code they produced was by and large of > different flavors (think Mike McCandless vs Rob vs Uwe), you could > tell these were virtuoso programmers and build your trust in their > judgement and opinion. > > Can this model be applied these days? If not - how do we select future > committers? > > # Person-to-person discussions > > I've also noticed that there's less and less of the person-to-person > discussions on the dev list. I am sentimental, maybe, but I miss the > oddball conversations and jokes we used to have in the past. Maybe > it's just the project going graybeard or maybe it's the sign of > changing times but I can't help but think that it's became less of a > forum for programming enthusiasts exchanging (wild) ideas and learning > from each other and more of a corporate fix-this-add-this repository > with some infrastructure built on top. Or maybe it's just people > departing to more attractive languages/ projects - this can't be ruled > out too. I'm not judging here, I'm just observing the reality. > > # Programming, the LLMs and the future of Lucene > > I really like programming - I've always liked it. But LLMs are getting > so good at understanding code (and improving it) that I find myself > more and more frequently in awe. Take a look at my recent CI failure > investigations (intentionally done with LLM help)... or this > patch/issue I (well) wrote last night - it rewrites bzip2 > decompression and the output (in java) is faster than my native > bunzip2... > > https://github.com/apache/commons-compress/pull/811 > > It is this wild. > > I don't want to go into the debate of whether programmers are still > needed at all - I don't have an established opinion on this... yet. > The (human) learning process is definitely affected by those tools - > not only they make one lazy but the sheer amount of code LLMs can > produce is so overwhelming that it's hard to keep up (and after a > while you just trigger auto-mode...). > > This said... I've been wondering if - in the spirit of oddball and > crazy things we used to do - we shouldn't create a branch and let LLMs > rip through whatever they like (collectively) as long as they keep the > tests, code and output right. There's a saying that LLMs enable > "everything you ever wanted to do but thought too complex". If you > take a look at that bzip2 patch, it certainly feels this way for me. > > So... maybe we (as people) should brainstorm some wild, hacky ideas on > the mailing list and then have them implemented just to see what they > outcome is like? Wouldn't it be fun? :) > > Looking forward to hearing from you. > > Dawid > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > -- http://www.needhamsoftware.com (work) https://a.co/d/b2sZLD9 (my fantasy fiction book)
