Post by @cwebber@social.coop

I really feel like we had several prominent FOSS organizations fail us by not saying "hey hold on, don't use generative AI in FOSS projects, we're not sure what the legal, community, environmental implications of this are but there are serious problems and we have a history of taking a stand" and I worry that maybe we lost our moment to be principled, except in niche spaces, and the walls are closing in

And... I'm really sad about it. I think we're underestimating the amount of damage that's happening. :\

15 Replies

7 Boosts

llewelly

@llewelly@sauropods.win 14 min. ago

@cwebber FOSS lost a chance to be part of the anti-datacenter movement.

Adrian Tombu

@to@fosstodon.org 48 min. ago

@cwebber Ever since I blocked the user Claude on Github, I've had this warning shown on an ever growing list of repositories and it's so fucking sad 😣

A github warning stating that I've blocked the user "claude" on the visited repository

Leonard Ritter

@lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place 56 min. ago

@cwebber the authorities are dead long live the authorities

Hugo Mills

@darkling@mstdn.social 1 hr. ago

@cwebber I'm at the point where I'm about ready to discard the idea of FOSS as it was originally created (with the libertarian overtones of "anyone at all can use this"), and move to something that's either explicitly non-commercial at all, or (my preferred version) licensed for use by for-profit companies up to a limited size -- whether that's by employee count or revenue.

FOSS has undergone a hostile takeover, and won't ever be thought of in the same way again. Time for a different approach.

Diane

@alienghic@timeloop.cafe 1 hr. ago

@cwebber

only some of us are in Free software for idealistic reasons.

Christine Lemmer-Webber

@cwebber@social.coop 1 hr. ago

@alienghic But some of the most idealistic free software orgs and communities I know failed to take a stand, took a middle ground position that, effectively, served as endorsement.

Diane

@alienghic@timeloop.cafe 1 hr. ago

@cwebber

Haven't the software groups been pretty narrowly focused, it's not a lot that's taken positions on wider political issues like global warming, palestine, or protecting workers rights?

Christine Lemmer-Webber

@cwebber@social.coop 59 min. ago

@alienghic It's true but like, this is our own stuff, this is the stuff we have a hand in making

Christine Lemmer-Webber

@cwebber@social.coop 1 hr. ago

I don't think you can put all else aside, but even just focusing on the maintainability of code itself...

Using these tools to uncover bugs, sure. Using them to generate code that nobody in your community fully understands... well...

And I know, you say, you'll be responsible about it.

But you won't be able to keep up, justifying keeping up with that level of review won't happen. So you'll slip. And you'll eventually embrace not knowing. And so is everyone else around you.

And so, decades of work are knotting up and the foundations are ensaring beneath our feet.

And we could have, collectively, organizationally, taken a stand, and we didn't.

Esther Payne :bisexual_flag:

@onepict@chaos.social 34 min. ago

@cwebber yeah, I just feel so constantly worried about the loose sand we're introducing into our infrastructure and ecosystem.

Which is what this feels like. I don't feel the foundations or the entire structure will be sound anymore.

It's crumbling.

Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de 28 min. ago

@onepict @cwebber I feel we're going back to 1980s where everything was proprietary systems other than small custom projects (and even those ran on proprietary hardware) - although networking and data interchange is likely to remain at a fairly advanced level as its needed for business transactions..

Sylvhem

@Sylvhem@eldritch.cafe 43 min. ago

@cwebber That’s the kind of situation where having a functionally FSF really could have helped.

aeva

@aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place 46 min. ago

@cwebber sadly this is all very much in line with the criticisms i've had for the movement for a good 11 or so years now, i just would have rather been wrong about it all. as much as foss attracts individuals who really do walk the walk and talk the talk, this is a movement that has generally failed to take a collective stand about much of anything beyond the four freedoms of free things for nerds of privilege.

Andrew Paulin

@acp@sdf.land 58 min. ago

@cwebber I expected to eventually become the Greybeard* That Knows How It All Worked if I live that long, I did not consider that it might happen before 40 and because of things our industry did to itself by choice

Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝

@richpuchalsky@mastodon.social 1 hr. ago

@cwebber

FOSS institutions were no more resistant to techno-fascism than any other institutions