this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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Direct link to the LLM Policy Discussion: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/work_items/187

Example of a KDE dev not wanting environmental concerns to play any role, despite KDE having an environmental project:

Devs rejecting any notion of transparency by disclosing AI usage in code submissions (in direct opposition to advice from the FSFE):

And all of this is coming right after the debacle with an AI slop project being allowed to give a presentation at Akademy, and the person asking how this was allowed being blocked by KDE:

https://lemmy.nz/post/42029517

as well as the discussion thread bringing up legitimate concerns about AI usage being closed:

https://discuss.kde.org/t/sorry-to-bring-up-a-contentious-topic-kde-ai-llm-policy/46333/164

As someone who genuinely loves KDE, and has even donated to the project multiple times, I sadly have to accept that the majority of KDE have hopped onto the Pro-AI train, and they will not be dissuaded otherwise.

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[–] anzo@programming.dev 4 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I am locking the thread because I consider this cherry picking comments from KDE maintainers misinformation. Let's wait and see where they go... The discussion as to include gen AI code, in which ways, how much, etc. is something that many projects (if not all) are undergoing. Let's be respectful to their open decision processes! This respectfulness needs to be regardless of whether we agree or not with what they do. Once they make a decision, sure, go ahead with flaming commentaries and endorsing alternatives or forks (if they appeared)

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 3 points 14 hours ago

Guess I'll stay on xfce...

[–] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 7 points 19 hours ago

I switched to Niri a few months ago as an experiment but now I guess I will not go back to KDE anytime soon

[–] soratoyuki@piefed.zip 80 points 1 day ago (14 children)

If slop coding is so great why is everyone so adamant about hiding it from users?

If you're not willing to disclose something, maybe take that as a hint.

[–] habitualTartare@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As a user, I think this is the biggest issue I have with this policy. Disclosure is a big part of open source and hiding whatever tools are used is fundamentally against that philosophy.

[–] fruitcantfly@programming.dev 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Would you be willing to expand on what you mean by disclosure being a big part of open source?

I ask because it has not been my experience that OSS developers have ever had a habit of disclosing what tools they use. If you are lucky then a repo has instructions for contributors, that may describe tools being used, or CI configuration for running tests and linters, but most projects have neither. Mostly you just get instructions for building the project, but sometimes not even that

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 points 14 hours ago

In some projects you'll see a kind of a colophon section listing all the tools used in making some software. Not just obviously things like libraries, but OS, text editor, IDE, art tools, or even inspirations.

It's not everywhere, but it's frequent enough, and different from how proprietary software credits (or doesn't) to make it a distinction imo.

[–] Fierro@piefed.social 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I feel like using ai is like using drugs, they're bad, but regulating them is muuuuuuuch better than just prohibiting, people will use it anyways.

It's not a one to one comparison but I feel encouraging witch hunts will definitely do more harm than normalizing it.

To be clear, I don't want it either, I'm acknowledging it's the lesser of two evils.

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[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It starts with "oh, just clean up any code generated" and "you must understand what your code does" and then in a decade that person won't remember how to code at all because they self-lobotomized themselves for the convenience.

[–] Sina@beehaw.org 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

I don't think becoming a worse coder is necessarily a big problem as long as code review really happens, as long as the human in the picture retains their algorithmic thinking there is no lobotomy. Of course we all know how human laziness works, so thinking that people would actually keep reviewing code after they find no major issues N times in a row is a pipe dream.

And I don't know about you guys, but I for one dislike reading someone else's code. LLM generated blocks can be especially bad for testing my sanity.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 1 points 15 hours ago

Yeah when I'm reading code and it becomes obvious there was zero thought behind a bit of logic, I lose all will to care about understanding the code or even what it does.

[–] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 124 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (11 children)

the policy in question:

The golden rule for LLM usage in KDE is Don't be lazy:

  1. Don't try to use a tool to replace your own judgment, interpersonal communication, or learning process.

  2. Don't take unsustainable shortcuts.

  3. Don't avoid growing as a person.

The result will be poor-quality work that eventually becomes someone else's problem.

Nobody in KDE should know if you use an LLM — not because you're concealing it, but because your usage of it produces output indistinguishable from what you could produce yourself. Contributions with obvious and lazy LLM usage may be ignored or closed.

Using an LLM to generate contributions

KDE follows a "human in the loop" principle: you must be making decisions and adjustments beyond mere prompting. The output must express your unique humanity in some way.

  1. Don't be a "meat proxy". For example:
  2. Don't submit throwaway LLM-created changes as a "first draft or proof-of-concept for maintainers to improve".
  3. Don't submit "vibe-coded" changes you don't understand and couldn't make yourself.
  4. Don't disclose LLM usage as a way of trying to excuse the potential errors or poor quality of a contribution that you haven't put much effort into.
  5. Don't add "Assisted-by: [some LLM]" tags to your commits; it's just free advertising for the LLM's provider.

(emphasis original, except for the fourth bullet point)

[–] Shayeta@feddit.org 79 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"You are responsible for the code you submit, regardless of tools used."

Literally the same stance Linus had on Linux. I'm okay with it as long as it's enforced.

[–] realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yes, that's fine. And it's also easy to enforce - just treat any code as if it's written by a human (except obviously machine generated code like hardware descriptions etc).

Being against AI and LLMs is all fine and dandy, but it kinda takes ridiculous shape now.

However, I would prefer if open source tools would only allow the usage of open weight models and self-hosted systems. But then again, that's my idealism talking.

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[–] yetAnotherUser@lemmy.ca 37 points 1 day ago

This isn't a bad policy, but outright ignoring ethical and environmental concerns doesn't seem very wise either. That should still be discussed, even if this becomes the final version of the policy.

This seems fine

[–] CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

i like how people exaggerated this into "oh no, KDE is s|op now". I totally get the hate for greedy and overhyping ai corpos, but if this policy is a sign of slop, you a) most probably never coded anything in your life b) unaware that before ai-slop there was natural, human-produced(tm) slop and dumb stackoverflow copypasta that barely even worked.

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[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 day ago

time to stop donating then. Ai crap results in death by a thousand cuts.

[–] kiarash@lemmychan.org 6 points 1 day ago

The stupidity of bandwagoners is on full display in this comment section.

[–] nocteb@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (5 children)

You cannot tell from the code necessarily anyway so anti-AI policies are hard to enforce. In the end the developer (or AI wielding human) is responsible for the code quality and its license which is what matters. All this discussion feels just like the usual culture war dividing the community. I’m more concerned about the intentions of people adding fuel to the fire.

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[–] ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.ca 91 points 2 days ago (9 children)

This is EXTREMELY disappointing. KDE is my favourite DE.

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