The GNOME.org Extensions hosting for GNOME Shell extensions will no longer accept new contributions with AI-generated code. A new rule has been added to their review guidelines to forbid AI-generated code.
Due to the growing number of GNOME Shell extensions looking to appear on extensions.gnome.org that were generated using AI, it’s now prohibited. The new rule in their guidelines note that AI-generated code will be explicitly rejected



So what does this mean? Bc like (at least with my boss) whenever I submit ai generated code at work I still have to have a deep and comprehensive understanding of the changes that I made, and I have to be right (meaning I have to be right about what I say bc I cannot say the AI solved the problem). What’s the difference between that and me writing the code myself (+googling and stack overflow)?
The difference is people aren’t being responsible with AI
You’re projecting competence onto others. You speak like you’re using AI responsibly
I use AI when it makes things easier. All the time. I bet you do too. Many people are using AI without a steady hand, without the intellectual strength to use it properly in a controlled manner
Its like a gas can over a match. Great for starting a campfire. Excellent for starting a wildfire.
Learning the basics and developing a workflow with VC is the answer.
That sounds like copium… But I’ll hear you out. What if VC? It better not be version control
Large language models are incredibly useful for replicating patterns.
They’re pretty hit and miss with writing code, but once I have a pattern that can’t easily be abstracted, I use it all the time and simply review the commit.
Or a quick proof of concept to ensure a higher level idea can work. They’re great for that too.
It is very annoying though when I have people submit me code that is all AI and incredibly incorrect.
Its just another tool on my belt. Its not going anywhere so the real trick is figuring out when to use it and why and when not to use it.
To be clear VC was version control. I should have been more clear.
Okay, that’s pretty fair. You seem to understand the tool properly
I’d argue that version control is not the correct layer to evaluate output, but it is a tool that can be used in many different ways…I don’t think that’s a great workflow, but I can conceive situations where that’s viable enough
If I were handing out authorizations to use AI, you’d get it
Banning a tool because the people using it don’t check their work seems shortsighted. Ban the poor users, not the tool.
They should state a justification. Not merely what they are looking for to identify AI generated code.
The justification could be the author is unlikely to be capable of maintenance. In which case the extension is just going to inconvenience/burden onto others.
So far their is no justification stated besides, da fuk and yuk.
Exactly, there isn’t a criteria other than the reviewer getting butthurt. Granted this is gnome, so doing whatever they feel like regardless of consequences is kind of their thing, but a saner organization would try to make the actual measurable badness more clear.
Have you read the first paragraph if the lidnked articel? It quotes the criteria right there: "Extensions must not be AI-generated
While it is not prohibited to use AI as a learning aid or a development tool (i.e. code completions), extension developers should be able to justify and explain the code they submit, within reason.
Submissions with large amounts of unnecessary code, inconsistent code style, imaginary API usage, comments serving as LLM prompts, or other indications of AI-generated output will be rejected."
Maybe instead of commenting under every comment that lines this change read the articlw first? Ai is fine if your code is fine and you uderstand it. If the reviewer has to argue with a llm because the submitter just pasts the text into his llm and then posts the output of said llm back to the reviwer it is a huge waste of time. Thiss doesnt happen if the person submitting the code understands it and made shure that the code is fine.
We do this all the time. I’m certified for a whole bunch of heavy machinery, if I were worse people would’ve died
And even then, I’ve nearly killed someone. I haven’t, but on a couple occasions I’ve come way too close
It’s good that I went through training. Sometimes, it’s better to restrict who is able to use powerful tools
Yeah something tells me operating heavy machinery is different from uploading an extension for a desktop environment. This isn’t building medical devices, this isn’t some misra compliance thing, this is a widget. Come on, man, you have to know the comparison is insane.
People have already died to AI. It’s cute when the AI tells you to put glue on your pizza or asks you to leave your wife, it’s not so cute when architects and doctors use it
Bad information can be deadly. And if you rely too hard on AI, your cognitive abilities drop. It’s a simple mental shortcut that works on almost everything
It’s only been like 18 months, and already it’s become very apparent a lot of people can’t be trusted with it. Blame and punish those people all you want, it’ll just keep happening. Humans love their mental shortcuts
Realistically, I think we should just make it illegal to have customer facing LLMs as a service. You want an AI? Set it up yourself. It’s not hard, but realizing it’s just a file on your computer would do a lot to demystify it
Have people died to desktop extensions?
Cause that’s the topic here.
You’re fighting a holy war against all AI, dune style.
I’m saying this is a super low risk environment where the implications appear to be extra try/catch blocks the code reviewers don’t like – not even incorrect functionality.
Well I was just arguing that people generally are using AI irresponsibly, but if you want to get specific…
You say ban the users, but realistically how are they determining that? The only way to reliably check if something is AI is human intuition. There’s no tool to do that, it’s a real problem
So effectively, they made it an offense to submit AI slop. Because if you just use AI properly as a resource, no one would be able to tell
So what are you upset about?
They did basically what you suggested, they just did it by making a rule so that they can have a reason to reject slop without spending too much time justifying the rejection
I’m only responding to this thread, yes, not the vast irreparable harm llms are doing to society and the world. Those are different arguments and I don’t see any coupling between them at all.
I say ban users who submit code that causes problems. If that’s mostly AI shit, fine, but I’d be shocked if humans didn’t also submit trash of a different sort. You ask how can they realistically determine that…isn’t that literally what this entire thread is about? I don’t think “using AI” is a criteria for anything. Their actual, real problem is with bad code they have to deal with, so why is “it uses AI 😭” the metric rather than “bad code”? Your entire argument seems circular to me.
The answer you seek is literally the post.
What’s the difference? Jesus, we have seen the difference in the news for the past year. You know the difference. Don’t play dumb now.
We still talking about extensions, right? Those things in gnome, that shows weather or time in different time zone?
Cause if yes, your response is kinda weird. Oh no, my weather applet is created using AI! Everything will fall apart! Jesus Christ, we need to burn author for that!