Godot Foundation Takes a Stand Against AI Contributions
Godot, the open-source game engine renowned for powering titles such as Slay the Spire 2 and The Case of the Golden Idol, has recently faced challenges stemming from an influx of AI-generated contributions. In February, the maintainers expressed their concerns regarding a growing number of AI slop pull requests, describing the situation as “increasingly draining and demoralizing” for those tasked with reviewing code.
After extensive discussions, the Godot Foundation has decided to implement new guidelines aimed at curbing this trend. In a recent blog post, the Foundation announced that it will soon prohibit AI-authored code, pull requests submitted by AI agents, and AI-generated text in communications between contributors.
The Foundation articulated the necessity of these changes, stating, “It is time for us to recognize that these problems aren’t going away and therefore we need to take steps to reduce the burden on maintainers while ensuring we still have a pipeline to mentor new contributors to become future maintainers.”
While the backlog of pull requests awaiting review highlights a growing interest in Godot, the influx of AI contributions has made the already tedious process of code review even more challenging. The Foundation noted, “If your feedback on PRs is just being absorbed by a machine and not going towards mentoring a potential future maintainer, it becomes much harder to justify spending your free time on PR review.”
As the situation becomes increasingly untenable, the Godot Foundation is focused on updating its contribution policies. The new guidelines will aim to establish barriers against low-effort contributions, encourage maintainers to engage in code reviews, and foster the development of new contributors into future maintainers. A key aspect of these changes is the requirement that all contributions must come from humans who are accountable for their code and capable of addressing any issues that arise.
The Foundation emphasized, “AI cannot take responsibility, and we can’t trust heavy users of AI to understand their code enough to fix it.” As part of the forthcoming policy revisions, explicit rejections of AI-authored code will be included, with contributors advised to use AI assistance only for “menial things” and to disclose its use when applicable. Furthermore, any AI-generated text in human-to-human communications will be rejected, as the Foundation considers this a matter of respect, although machine translations of human-authored text will still be permitted.
In light of the rapidly evolving landscape of AI tools, the Foundation remains committed to a cautious approach in its policies, stating, “We will continue taking a conservative approach in our policies towards them, but we will re-evaluate as things evolve.”
