How AI can help sustain open source, not destroy it
E145 | Sun 16 Jul noon–12:30 p.m.
Presented by
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Justin Dorfman
@jdorfman
https://www.justindorfman.com/
Justin Dorfman is Sourcegraph's Open Source Program Manager and is responsible for fostering the adoption of code intelligence in the open source community.
Justin has contributed to Bootstrap, Font Awesome, jQuery, Nginx, CNCF, GNU Bash, Zsh, and many more. He also served on the selection committee for Mozilla's Open Source Support (MOSS) program. In 2017, he co-founded SustainOSS, which hosts events and podcasts for open source software Sustainers.
He serves on the Open Source Collective's board of directors and is an advisor for The Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative Working Group.
Justin Dorfman
@jdorfman
https://www.justindorfman.com/
Abstract
There are some concerns that AI could pose a threat to FOSS. For example, some worry that AI could be used to create proprietary software that is more powerful and efficient than OSS. Additionally, others worry that AI could be used to automate the development of FOSS, which could lead to a decline in the number of people willing to contribute to open source projects.
However, there are also a number of ways in which AI can be used to help sustain open source. For example, AI can be used to:
* Automate tasks: AI can be used to automate a number of tasks currently performed by humans, such as writing unit tests. This can free human developers to focus on more creative and strategic work.
* Improve quality: AI can improve the quality of FOSS by identifying and fixing bugs as well as security vulnerabilities.
* Attract new contributors: AI can attract new contributors to open source projects by making it easier for people to get involved. For example, AI can generate documentation and tutorials and then be improved by contributors to fix hallucinations.
Overall, AI has the potential to both help and hurt open source. However, if used correctly, AI can be a powerful tool for sustaining and improving open source software.
There are some concerns that AI could pose a threat to FOSS. For example, some worry that AI could be used to create proprietary software that is more powerful and efficient than OSS. Additionally, others worry that AI could be used to automate the development of FOSS, which could lead to a decline in the number of people willing to contribute to open source projects. However, there are also a number of ways in which AI can be used to help sustain open source. For example, AI can be used to: * Automate tasks: AI can be used to automate a number of tasks currently performed by humans, such as writing unit tests. This can free human developers to focus on more creative and strategic work. * Improve quality: AI can improve the quality of FOSS by identifying and fixing bugs as well as security vulnerabilities. * Attract new contributors: AI can attract new contributors to open source projects by making it easier for people to get involved. For example, AI can generate documentation and tutorials and then be improved by contributors to fix hallucinations. Overall, AI has the potential to both help and hurt open source. However, if used correctly, AI can be a powerful tool for sustaining and improving open source software.