Interesting blog post by @yoasif about #GenAI, #LLM-generated code, #copyright and #copyleft licenses (e.g. #GPLhttps://www.quippd.com/writing/2026/04/08/ai-code-is-hollowing-out-open-source-and-maintainers-are-looking-the-other-way.htmlTLDR:LLM-generated code is not protected by copyright - because it was not created by a human. Therefore, it is essentially public-domain.Now, if you start accepting LLM-generated code into a project under a copyleft license, eventually it should also become public domain (e.g. imagine an open-source project where after a few years of LLM contributions 90% of the code has been generated by an LLM).If that project essentially doesn't fall under copyright anymore, it becomes public domain, so the author(s) can't put a license on it anymore - and hence the #copyleft license doesn't apply anymore. Everyone is free to use it, even if the original contributors intended for the project only to be usable in a #copyleft way.The blog post touches on some interesting, but quite philosophical questions, mainly:- Where do we draw the line between code written by a human with the help of a machine and code written by an LLM?- How much editing of LLM-generated code is necessary until the code can be considered to have been written by a human?
