OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#21

Post by wildzzz » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:33 PM UTC

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #5

SomeHacker44 wrote: post #3

Seems short sighted for an interim policy, to me. Why not just require clear and detailed disclosure of the use of said tools, to generate data for which to make a properly informed non interim decision?

I suspect one of the principle reasons for the blanket decline is specifically that AI generated PRs are already responsible for a substantial uptick in the amount of work required to be done by maintainers. Engaging in discussions about those PRs may be more fulfilling and useful for the developer but it also then increases that work yet again manifold, so that would likely be highly counter-productive. What I don't…

It sounds like you did exactly what OpenJDK would have wanted you to do, be the human in the loop.

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#22

Post by talon8635 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:33 PM UTC

asdfsa32 wrote: post #17

pizlonator wrote: post #7

How do you enforce this?

Blockchain.

Almost spit my coffee out

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#23

Post by talon8635 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:34 PM UTC

functionmouse wrote: post #14

pizlonator wrote: post #7

How do you enforce this?

Subjectively; as 100% of all laws and rules throughout history have been enforced.

I suspect people keep asking because it’s becoming, with each passing day, increasingly difficult to distinguish what has been generated from what has not

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#24

Post by kdavis » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:37 PM UTC

malfist wrote: post #16

kdavis wrote: post #12

While I understand the caution, the current policy seems too draconian. It states in part: > Until that policy is in place, the Governing Board has approved this interim policy: > Contributions in the OpenJDK Community must not include content generated, in part or in full, by large language models... Note, this would exclude most spell checkers, as they often are LLM based. That said, they do soften this with the ad…

> this would exclude most spell checkers, as they often are LLM based Who is using an LLM as a spell checker?

My point is you might be when you wrote your comment or I might be in writing this comment.

However, I don't know if I am as I haven't seen, and will likely never see, the implementation behind the text box that is suggesting the next letter, word, or spelling correction as I type.

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#25

Post by skwirl » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

pron wrote: post #4

SomeHacker44 wrote: post #3

Seems short sighted for an interim policy, to me. Why not just require clear and detailed disclosure of the use of said tools, to generate data for which to make a properly informed non interim decision?

Because, as the FAQ section clearly states, the technical and management aspects are not the only ones. There are also legal issues, and until they are clarified or resolved it's best not to let code in that has the potential of causing problems later. We're talking about one of the biggest and most critical open source projects in the world, and unless there's some immediate urgency, it's okay to wait before taking…

Oracle also has a vested interest in defending an expansive view of intellectual property rights. They lean very heavily on litigation as part of their business model and will want to reserve the right to sue anyone generating software that competes with theirs when the model may have been trained on anything they hold the copyright to.

If they held here that it is OK to use LLM generated code for OpenJDK it could kill these cases later as they will have established that they believe it is fair use.

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#26

Post by abc42 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

My prophecy is that in 3 years we'll see a complete reversal of this. Using GenAI to code will be the default and we'll see policies that put limits on human/artisan development. Possibly even projects that outright ban non-LLM development.

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#27

Post by pron » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

effnorwood wrote: post #18

Oracle determining how to add more sypware while not violating their own TOS

What spyware is there in the JDK? It's open-source, so you can look for yourself.

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#28

Post by kdavis » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:40 PM UTC

ekidd wrote: post #20

kdavis wrote: post #12

While I understand the caution, the current policy seems too draconian. It states in part: > Until that policy is in place, the Governing Board has approved this interim policy: > Contributions in the OpenJDK Community must not include content generated, in part or in full, by large language models... Note, this would exclude most spell checkers, as they often are LLM based. That said, they do soften this with the ad…

Is anyone using even a tiny on-device language model for spelling? For grammar, I could almost imagine it. But this also bans "simple" AI-powered auto-complete, like Zed's Zeta2 model. This is a very conservative model that rarely tries to propose more than a few obvious lines (at least in my use cases). If a developer accepts a three-line autocomplete that introduces a bug, that's kind of on them. Honestly, about th…

The is not exactly my point.

I am speaking of spelling/grammar checkers are part of the IDE and/or OS.

You'd have to know your IDE and/or OS's implementation details to know you are not using an LLM based one.

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#29

Post by Viliam1234 » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

This makes sense.

AI contribution is basically just "prompt + AI work". Even if you are okay with AI work per se, you should accept prompts (after reviewing them) and let your own AI generate the code (and then also review the code)... rather then accept an output of someone else's AI with an unknown prompt, that may or may not include an instruction to create a vulnerability.

In the age of AI, the prompt is becoming the actual source code. Accepting AI-generated code would be like accepting binary code from unknown source.

Re: OpenJDK Interim Policy on Generative AI

#30

Post by raincole » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

kdavis wrote: post #12

While I understand the caution, the current policy seems too draconian. It states in part: > Until that policy is in place, the Governing Board has approved this interim policy: > Contributions in the OpenJDK Community must not include content generated, in part or in full, by large language models... Note, this would exclude most spell checkers, as they often are LLM based. That said, they do soften this with the ad…

> Note, this would exclude most spell checkers, as they often are LLM based

?

Like, what? What are you even talking about? Most spell checkers used by programmers are certainly not LLM based. Spell-checking has always been instant for like two decades. It's such a solved problem.