Perhaps require the use of a prompt that narrows the knowledge base of the AI e.g. to acceptably licensed code?
On Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 1:05 PM Nathan via NumPy-Discussion < [email protected]> wrote: > > > On Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 10:57 AM Charles R Harris via NumPy-Discussion < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> On Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 10:23 AM David Cournapeau via NumPy-Discussion < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> I know there has been discussions in the past on AI-generated >>> contributions. Is there a current policy for NumPy ? E.g. do we request >>> that contributors are the "sole contributor" to the written code, or do we >>> allow code written by AI as long as it follows the usual quality >>> requirements ? >>> >>> Context of my question: ~18 months ago I started in some spare time >>> writing an ARPACK-replacement in numpy/scipy during scipy sprint. At that >>> time, I used ChatGPT for the "research part" only: literature review, >>> explain to me some existing BSD implementation in Julia for points I could >>> not understand. I implemented the python code myself. There is still quite >>> a bit of work needed to be a viable replacement for ARPACK. >>> >>> Seeing the progress of the AI tooling in my team at work, and how I >>> myself use those tools for other hobby projects, I believe I could finish >>> that replacement very quickly with those tools today. But I don't want to >>> "taint" the work if this would risk the chances of integration into scipy >>> proper. >>> >>> >> My personal take is "allow code written by AI as long as it follows the >> usual quality requirements ?". I don't see that we have much choice going >> forward, the tools are improving, and I see some top programmers picking up >> on them. It is the future. We should limit >> slop, as it takes up reviewer time, but clean code is clean code. As long >> as references and such are checked to be authentic, I'm happy. >> >> I don't think we have a formal position at this point. >> > > It’s probably time to adopt one and/or add an AGENTS.md file to the repo. > > I mostly agree with Chuck that there’s mot much we can do to avoid it. > People will use the tools and not disclose, so any copyright issues will > happen no matter what policy we have. > > I’m nervous about subtle inconsistencies and hallucinations, especially > from contributions that are mostly vibe-coded. To me, that means the code > needs much more careful review than human-written contributions because the > nature of the errors made are different. > > >> Chuck >> _______________________________________________ >> NumPy-Discussion mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >> https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/numpy-discussion.python.org >> Member address: [email protected] >> > _______________________________________________ > NumPy-Discussion mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/numpy-discussion.python.org > Member address: [email protected] >
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