April 16, 2026
Humans vs. robots: code edition
SDL bans AI-written commits
SDL says 'Humans Only!' Devs split between 'tissue vs flood' and 'just fork it'
TLDR: SDL moved to block AI-written code and set a humans-only review rule with disclosure. Comments exploded: some say it’s pointless against the AI tide and predict fast-moving forks, others back careful human review—sparking a purity-versus-pragmatism fight over how open source should handle machine-made code.
SDL, the popular open-source game library, just drew a line in the sand: no AI-written code. The maintainer even admitted he asks chatbots questions sometimes—but says they “lie 50% of the time” and won’t let them write code. His dream policy? Auto-close any AI-coded pull request. The compromise on the table: disclose any AI use, maintainers won’t use AI, humans will review everything, and revisit in 3 months.
The comments? Absolute fireworks. One camp calls the move noble but naïve. “Stopping a flood with a tissue,” snarked one user, while another predicted the real action will happen in AI-fueled forks racing ahead with features and bug fixes. Others argued the reasoning “leaves a bad taste,” accusing the maintainers of vibes-based gatekeeping. The spiciest hot take? “People who can wield AI have no use for SDL at all… AI has no such limitations,” which had devs rolling their eyes and sharpening their keyboards.
Meanwhile, the middle-ground crowd says AI + human review can work just fine—and that old-school processes are crumbling now that thousands of lines of code can appear “out of thin air.” Meme of the day: “Tissue vs Flood”. Plot twist: Will the “humans-only” mainline move slower while an AI-powered fork speedruns the future? Grab popcorn.
Key Points
- •SDL currently lacks a formal policy on AI-generated or AI-assisted contributions.
- •Recent contributions likely included AI involvement without disclosure, raising detection and trust concerns.
- •The author personally avoids AI-generated code, citing ChatGPT’s unreliability and disabling AI features.
- •A strict ban closing any AI-generated PRs is the author’s preference but deemed likely controversial.
- •Proposed policy: require AI-use disclosure in PRs, maintainers pledge not to use AI for SDL code, ensure human review of all PRs, and revisit the policy every three months.