Overview
Simon Willison addresses ethical and legal questions about using LLMs to port open source code between programming languages. He concludes that LLM-assisted code porting is both legal and ethical when proper attribution and licensing are maintained, though he acknowledges potential impacts on the open source ecosystem.
Key Arguments
- LLM code porting is legally permissible when treated as derivative work with proper attribution: He kept the original open source license and copyright statement, treating the JavaScript port as a derivative work, which aligns with the fundamental purpose of open source licensing
- Ethical concerns are addressed through proper credit and licensing practices: Open source explicitly allows and encourages derivative works, and this is no different from a student forking a project to add features, though porting to another language represents a different scope
- Benefits to newcomers may outweigh losses from discouraged contributors: While some maintainers may stop contributing due to AI concerns, the technology enables more people to contribute by reducing development time from days to hours for those with limited time
Implications
The open source ecosystem is evolving toward AI-assisted development, and maintainers must decide whether to embrace newcomers enabled by these tools or risk losing contributors who oppose AI integration. The technology fundamentally changes how derivative works are created but doesn’t alter the legal and ethical frameworks that already govern open source collaboration.
Counterpoints
- Some open source maintainers are withdrawing from contributing: Developers who don’t want their code used for AI training or LLM-derived works may stop releasing open source projects entirely
- Reduced demand for traditional open source projects: LLMs may decrease traffic to documentation and reduce conversions to paid services, potentially hurting the economic sustainability of open source projects