Bart Piotrowski, maintainer of the app catalog infrastructure Flathub, announced the addition to rules Flathub changes, prohibiting the use of AI both to develop hosted applications and to automate the publishing process on Flathub. The rules apply to published applications, add-ons, manifest files, metadata, patches, build scripts, pull requests and any artifacts created through flatpak-builder.
Previously existing rules allowed the posting of applications and changes, some of which were generated through AI and underwent manual review. The new rules prohibit the publication of applications containing any code, documentation or other components created with the participation of AI, but provide for the possibility of providing separate exceptions for mature and well-maintained projects. The restrictions only apply to new projects posted after the rules change, and will not affect applications already published in the directory, created through AI.
In a note, Barth noted that large language models can be a useful tool and over time, less and less code will be created without their participation. But the current reality is that the authors of programs created through AI are often not ready to put in the effort to create and hone a full-fledged product and act only as intermediaries who set the task to the AI agent and publish the result. It is indicated that Bart is tired of the conflicts with arrogant authors that have escalated over the past month, arising after the refusal to accept their crude programs created through AI into the catalog.