Godot LLM contributions
Godot discourages LLM-generated contributions, and only allows them under the following conditions: 1
- The contribution is not made entirely by AI.
- The LLM output has been proofread and improved.
- How the LLM was used exactly is disclosed.
In the past, Godot had allowed LLM-generated contributions more permissively. 2 However, they no longer do this for the following reasons: 1
- LLMs have made it easier to author more PRs, adding to their already large PR backlog, while the amount of work it takes to review them has stayed the same.
- LLM-generated contributions are demoralizing, because reviewers have a hard time justifying spending their free time if the feedback doesn't go towards mentoring a future maintainer.
The only LLM-generated contribution that I am
aware of is #112471,
and is contained in the 4.6-stable,
4.6.1-stable, and
4.6.2-stable tags. It was not disclosed
and the maintainers missed that it was
LLM-generated. A maintainer stated that in hindsight
it should have been flagged and rejected. Claude was
subsequently banned from contributing, but the
commit has not been reverted. In my assessment,
#112471 is very minor and I think it is unlikely to
cause licensing or maintainability problems. 2