Open-source software development—the open, collaborative contribution of knowledge in the name of problem solving, bug fixing, feature development, and ongoing support—is a borderline utopian idea. But the advent of generative LLMs has forced the maintainers of projects like open-source game engine Godot to face a deluge of AI-generated code from would-be contributors who might not even understand the changes they're submitting.
In a Bluesky thread (via Game Developer), Rémi Verschelde—one of the primary maintainers of the Godot Github repository and co-founder of major Godot backer W4 Games—says the problem of "AI slop" pull requests, or requests to merge code changes with the project, is "becoming increasingly draining and demoralizing for Godot maintainers" as they're now forced to deliberate the trustworthiness and human authorship of an onslaught of LLM-generated contributions.
