Linux Foundation: AI cuts coding time but fills inboxes with "AI slop"

The Linux Foundation survey paints a mixed picture of generative AI's effect on open source. While respondents estimated a 52 percent cut in code-authoring time on average, they also estimated that a quarter of incoming pull requests were low-quality "AI slop" — a share that rises to 31 percent on large projects. This suggests the time saved in writing code may be offset by extra review work for maintainers, though the survey does not directly measure that trade-off.

The governance gap is notable: only 35 percent of projects have a formal policy permitting GenAI use, and 32 percent have no policy and no plans for one. Hilary Carter, SVP of Research at the Linux Foundation, said projects need to design for a growing AI-generated contributor base rather than simply react to it, setting clear expectations and putting responsibility for testing and disclosure on contributors.

The strain is already visible beyond pull requests. The curl project announced this week it will move low and medium severity flaws to public view to protect a security team almost overwhelmed by AI-assisted reports. Maintainer Daniel Stenberg said the project is struggling as all key maintainers feel strained, overloaded and brought to the brink of what they can muster. Together, these findings point to a need for better tools and clearer policies, as the foundation argues.