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[80.230.28.14]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id ffacd0b85a97d-47fd458bf7csm26532661f8f.32.2026.08.02.12.51.03 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256); Sun, 02 Aug 2026 12:51:05 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2026 15:51:02 -0400 From: "Michael S. Tsirkin" To: Paolo Bonzini Cc: qemu-devel@nongnu.org, Alex =?iso-8859-1?Q?Benn=E9e?= , Alistair Francis , BALATON Zoltan , Daniel =?iso-8859-1?Q?P=2E_Berrang=E9?= , Fabiano Rosas , Kevin Wolf , Peter Maydell , Warner Losh , Philippe =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mathieu-Daud=E9?= , Paolo Bonzini Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] docs/devel: relax policy on AI-generated contributions Message-ID: <20260802154350-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org> References: <20260529094619.1034458-1-pbonzini@redhat.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20260529094619.1034458-1-pbonzini@redhat.com> Received-SPF: pass client-ip=170.10.129.124; envelope-from=mst@redhat.com; helo=us-smtp-delivery-124.mimecast.com X-Spam_score_int: -28 X-Spam_score: -2.9 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIMWL_WL_HIGH=-0.811, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE=-0.0001, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H2=-0.01, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: qemu-devel@nongnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: qemu development List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: qemu-devel-bounces+qemu-devel=archiver.kernel.org@nongnu.org Sender: qemu-devel-bounces+qemu-devel=archiver.kernel.org@nongnu.org On Fri, May 29, 2026 at 11:46:19AM +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote: > Until now QEMU's code provenance policy declined any contribution > believed to include or derive from AI-generated content. A blanket ban > was easy to maintain while LLM output was rarely usable on its own, but > as the tools improved an absolute prohibition has become harder to > justify. > > The concern that motivated the policy is unchanged, and it is worth stating > precisely: the DCO is about whether the submitter has the legal right to > contribute the code, not about "creative expression". While the status of > LLM output seems to be converging towards non-copyrightability, questions > around unintentional reproduction of copyrighted code are still open. > What has shifted is the balance of risk: > > - projects accepting AI-assisted content have not run into serious > legal trouble so far, which suggests the probability of the risk > materializing is not high; > > - other organizations, such as Red Hat[1], have assessed the risk as > acceptable -- though a community of individual developers does not > have the legal backing of a company, and even an unfounded dispute > would be a long-lasting distraction from work on QEMU. > > Nevertheless, even Red Hat mentions that "the possibility of occasional > replication cannot be ignored". In QEMU's view, attentiveness and > oversight are not a practical way to address this; yet as a copyleft > project, copyright and code provenance are of utmost importance to us. > Therefore, it remains prudent to only permit AI assistance where the > ramifications of copyright violations are at least easy to revert and > unlikely to spread: tests, documentation, mechanical changes, and small > bug fixes. Core code that other things depend on, and that cannot > simply be thrown away once a problem is noticed long after the fact, > stays off-limits without prior agreement from a maintainer. > > Related to this, and already visible in the incredible uptick in > security reports, is the question of maintainer burnout and the shift in > effort from the author to the reviewer of the code. AI lowers the cost of > producing a patch but does nothing to lower the cost of understanding and > reviewing one; if anything it raises it, since a reviewer can no longer > assume that the submitter has reasoned through every line. The limits > above work just as much to keep the volume of review work sustainable. > > Revise the policy according to the above considerations, and introduce the > "AI-used-for:" trailer as a record of where AI was used. The standard is > slightly different from the more usual "Assisted-by"; the intention is for > the metadata to provide more information for reviewers to judge the result. > > In any case, use of AI does not relax any other contribution requirement: > authors still comply with the DCO and take responsibility for the whole > patch via Signed-off-by. > > [Commit message largely based on > https://lore.kernel.org/qemu-devel/ahXbxzB4C_lr6b0N@redhat.com/, by > Kevin Wolf. - Paolo] So GCC has now decided that 15 lines or so is ok, if a maintainer decides so, and that one should only count significantly different changes, what they call, following the gnu maintainer guidelines "legally significant contributions": A change of just a few lines (less than 15 or so) is not legally significant for copyright. A regular series of repeated changes, such as renaming a symbol, is not legally significant even if the symbol has to be renamed in many places. I note that the gnu project maintainer guidelines follow this with " Keep in mind, however, that a series of minor changes by the same person can add up to a significant contribution. What counts is the total contribution of the person; it is irrelevant which parts of it were contributed when." which I guess would be hard to apply to AI generated code, so they don't try. GCC also makes an exception for tests and I guess we could make an exception for internal developer docs? > [1] https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/ai-assisted-development-and-open-source-navigating-legal-issues > Acked-by: Michael S. Tsirkin > Cc: Alex Bennée > Cc: Alistair Francis > Cc: BALATON Zoltan > Cc: Daniel P. Berrangé > Cc: Fabiano Rosas > Cc: Kevin Wolf > Cc: Peter Maydell > Cc: Warner Losh > Reviewed-by: Philippe Mathieu-Daudé > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/qemu-devel/20260524083329-mutt-send-email-mst@kernel.org/T/ > Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini > --- > docs/devel/code-provenance.rst | 142 ++++++++++++++++++++++----------- > 1 file changed, 94 insertions(+), 48 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/docs/devel/code-provenance.rst b/docs/devel/code-provenance.rst > index 65b8f232a08..857588c43ba 100644 > --- a/docs/devel/code-provenance.rst > +++ b/docs/devel/code-provenance.rst > @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ > .. _code-provenance: > > -Code provenance > -=============== > +Code provenance and AI usage > +============================ > > Certifying patch submissions > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > @@ -288,62 +288,108 @@ content generators below. > Use of AI-generated content > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > -TL;DR: > +.. warning:: > > - **Current QEMU project policy is to DECLINE any contributions which are > - believed to include or derive from AI generated content. This includes > - ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Llama and similar tools.** > + Please read the below policy before using AI to contribute code or > + documentation to QEMU. This applies to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, > + Llama, and similar tools.** > > - **This policy does not apply to other uses of AI, such as researching APIs > - or algorithms, static analysis, or debugging, provided their output is not > - included in contributions.** > +The increasing prevalence of AI-assisted software development, > +and especially the use of content generated by `Large Language Models > +`__ (LLMs), > +poses a number of difficult questions. > > -The increasing prevalence of AI-assisted software development results in a > -number of difficult legal questions and risks for software projects, including > -QEMU. Of particular concern is content generated by `Large Language Models > -`__ (LLMs). > +Risks to open source projects include maintainer burnout from an > +increased number of contributions, as well as the risk to the project > +from unintentional inclusion of copyrighted material in the LLM's output. > +In order to mitigate these risks, the QEMU project currently allows > +using AI/LLM tools to produce patches in a limited set of scenarios: > > -The QEMU community requires that contributors certify their patch submissions > -are made in accordance with the rules of the `Developer's Certificate of > -Origin (DCO) `. > +**Mechanical changes** > + If you can use a deterministic tool, it is preferred that you use it > + and not replace it with AI. If you don't know how to do the change > + deterministically, you can ask the AI for help. > > -To satisfy the DCO, the patch contributor has to fully understand the > -copyright and license status of content they are contributing to QEMU. With AI > -content generators, the copyright and license status of the output is > -ill-defined with no generally accepted, settled legal foundation. > +**Small bug fixes** > + These should be limited to 20 lines of code or less, not including > + tests. You are still expected to :ref:`understand and explain your changes > + ` and the rationale behind them. > > -Where the training material is known, it is common for it to include large > -volumes of material under restrictive licensing/copyright terms. Even where > -the training material is all known to be under open source licenses, it is > -likely to be under a variety of terms, not all of which will be compatible > -with QEMU's licensing requirements. > +**Documentation and code comments** > + While AI can help draft text, it still requires significant human > + oversight. Pay attention to the organization and flow of the generated > + text, and strictly fact-check all technical details as LLMs are prone > + to being confidently wrong. > > -How contributors could comply with DCO terms (b) or (c) for the output of AI > -content generators commonly available today is unclear. The QEMU project is > -not willing or able to accept the legal risks of non-compliance. > +**Tests** > + Note that you must still confirm that each test actually exercises > + the intended behavior including, for regression tests, that it > + fails without the code under test and passes for the right reason. > > -The QEMU project thus requires that contributors refrain from using AI content > -generators on patches intended to be submitted to the project, and will > -decline any contribution if use of AI is either known or suspected. > +These boundaries do not apply to other uses of AI, such as researching > +APIs or algorithms, static analysis, or debugging, provided the model's > +output is not included in contributions. > > -Examples of tools impacted by this policy includes GitHub's CoPilot, OpenAI's > -ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Meta's Code Llama, and code/content > -generation agents which are built on top of such tools. > +If you wish to send large amounts of AI-generated changes, or any other > +contribution not in the above categories, please get in touch with the > +maintainer beforehand. These can be treated as experiments, at the > +discretion of the maintainer and the community, with no obligation > +to accept them. > > -This policy may evolve as AI tools mature and the legal situation is > -clarified. > +**Use of AI does not remove the need for authors to comply with all > +other requirements for contribution.** In particular, the > +``Signed-off-by`` label in a patch submission is a statement that > +the author takes responsibility for the entire contents of the patch, > +certifying that their patch submission is made in accordance with the > +rules of the `Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO) `. > > -Exceptions > -^^^^^^^^^^ > +Commit messages for AI-assisted changes > +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > -The QEMU project welcomes discussion on any exceptions to this policy, > -or more general revisions. This can be done by contacting the qemu-devel > -mailing list with details of a proposed tool, model, usage scenario, etc. > -that is beneficial to QEMU, while still mitigating issues around compliance > -with the DCO. After discussion, any exception will be listed below. > +When AI/LLM tools produce or substantively shape your patch, add an > +``AI-used-for:`` line before ``Signed-off-by``, as a reminder of your > +DCO obligations and a guide to reviewers. The text is one or more of > +``code``, ``tests``, ``docs``, ``research``, possibly followed by an > +explanation in parentheses: > > -Exceptions do not remove the need for authors to comply with all other > -requirements for contribution. In particular, the "Signed-off-by" > -label in a patch submission is a statement that the author takes > -responsibility for the entire contents of the patch, including any parts > -that were generated or assisted by AI tools or other tools. > +.. code-block:: none > + > + AI-used-for: tests, docs > + AI-used-for: code > + AI-used-for: code (refactoring) > + AI-used-for: code (prototype) > + AI-used-for: research > + > +``AI-used-for`` should not be included for "background" usage such as > +autocomplete or obtaining a pre-review of the patch. > + > +There is no requirement to include your prompts or summarize the > +conversation in the commit message or cover letter, but you may do so > +if you think it helps a reviewer judge the result. For example: > + > +**Helpful prompts** > + These describe concrete constraints or instructions, making it easy for a > + reviewer to see how the tool's output was guided: > + > + * "move field ``foo`` from ``struct aa`` to ``struct bb``. If a > + function already has a local variable or parameter of type ``struct > + bb``, use it instead of accessing ``aa.bb``" > + > + * "add an implementation of the trait for ``Mutex``; it > + takes the lock around the calls and forwards to ``T``" > + > +**Unhelpful prompts** > + These are too generic to provide meaningful context. You can of course > + use them in the context of a complex interaction with the LLM, but they > + should not be included in the commit message: > + > + * "write user-facing documentation for the new tool" > + > + * "write testcases for the new functions" > + > +QEMU does *not* use ``Assisted-by``, ``Co-authored-by`` or ``Generated-by`` > +trailers to indicate AI usage. In particular, it is not necessary to > +specify the exact AI model or tool used to create the commit. > + > +Deterministic tooling (sed, coccinelle, formatters) is out of scope for > +the trailer, but should be mentioned in the commit message. > -- > 2.54.0