FreeCAD6d ago
Yesterday we blogged about updates to our policy and guidance for the use of #AI in submitted patches. https://blog.freecad.org/2026/03/16/rules-regarding-ai-generated-patches/
Rules regarding AI-generated patches

Big and small free/open-source projects have been facing an avalanche of AI-generated patches lately. Some patches are more or less OK, others have convoluted, badly designed code. The net effect i…

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Show threadMichael K Johnson5d ago

@freecad

That being said, the use of AI is not recommended under any circumstances or in any manner.

The passive voice here is confusing to me. Reading it in the context of the bullet point it is in, I can imagine any of these three readings:

  • The project will not make a recommendation regarding the use of AI tools.
  • The project is explicitly recommending against the use of AI tools.
  • The submitter of a patch which used AI tools must not recommend the use of AI tools to others in reference to their work.

    • Which one of these meanings, or what other meaning, was intended?

    Show threadAleksandr Prokudin
    @mcdanlj @freecad It's 2) of course, how could it possibly be 1) or 3)?
    Mar 20 at 3:40pmWeb
    Show threadMichael K Johnson2d ago

    @prokoudine @freecad It's passive voice. I've let you know that because the passive voice makes the actor unclear, all three readings seem plausible to me. If you want to be clear, avoid passive voice.

    If I were responsible for the statement, I would rewrite it to be clearer, and I would avoid passive voice in doing so. But I'm not, so instead I'm just articulating clearly that it is not clear.

    You are welcome to do whatever you want with this.

    Show threadAleksandr Prokudin2d ago
    @mcdanlj @freecad Well, the entire CONTRIBUTING.md is written in passive voice, so that's just following the general style. I'm not a big fan of passive voice either, I just find it curious that passive voice can result in this kind of confusion