Rust-lang/rust adopts an LLM policy
Rust-lang/rust is adopting an LLM policy
The Rust project has adopted a new policy governing the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in contributions to the rust-lang/rust monorepo. Authored by a team member, the policy aims to address issues like polished PRs no longer indicating effort, increased review burden, and mechanical copy-pasting of LLM output. It requires disclosure of LLM-generated content, restricts LLM-generated code changes, and clarifies moderation rules. The policy is not an official stance on LLMs and applies only to specific groups, such as reviewers and PR authors.
It's fine to use LLMs to answer questions, analyze, distill, refine, check, suggest, review. But not to **create**.
- matheusmoreira
The exact rules on LLM generated code submission live here:
https://forge.rust-lang.org/policies/llm-usage.html
https://rustc-dev-guide.rust-lang.org/llm-guidance/writing.h...
> Pre-arranged, non-critical, high-quality, well-tested, and well-reviewed code changes that are originally created by an LLM are allowed, with disclosure.
They clearly put a lot of thought into this and it shows. Huge respect.
> New contributors cannot create a PR using an LLM unless they first talk with a reviewer.
New contributors do not have community connections. I don't know any rust-lang/rust reviewer.
What is the correct procedure for this?
> Harassment is not allowed.
> You may not harass people for using an LLM, regardless of whether or not their use is banned by the policy.
Refreshing take. Not a fan of heavy handed moderation, but I'm still very happy to see that they have this stance given the racism-tier insults I've gotten on forums without it.
I especially like this rule:
> Don’t try to be the police for whether someone has used an LLM. You are not required to “actively look” for whether an LLM was involved.
- minimaxir
> Harassment is not allowed. You may not harass people for using an LLM, regardless of whether or not their use is banned by the policy. You must follow the Code of Conduct at all times when interacting with the Rust project.
This policy I like.
- weli
I really dislike every kind of rule that says something along the lines "if it's LLM generated you must self-disclose otherwise it is against the rules". Because this quickly leads to witch hunting and easy persecution of IC's under the pretense "it looks generated by an LLM" or they just investigate you and put you on cooldown from being able to contribute while they check for signs of "LLM-generated code". It's no different than laws giving any officer the right to violate your rights based on flaky probable cause "you have slurred speech therefore I will search your car to see any open containers". This can lead to a soft coup by anti-llm individuals which will make communities slowly drift towards a group of elitists that gatekeep any newcomer.
- andsoitis
In a nutshell: It's fine to use LLMs to answer questions, analyze, distill, refine, check, suggest, review. But not to create.
- luciana1u
the policy has a rule against harassing people for using LLMs. somewhere a maintainer is writing a CoC violation for being too polite about AI slop.