Generative AI is rapidly changing software development, but not everyone is buying in. The well-known open source game engine Godot recently officially updated its contribution policy, announcing that future code submitted to official projects must be written by humans, and AI-generated code will no longer be accepted. As soon as the news came out, it immediately sparked heated discussions in the developer community. Officials admitted frankly that in recent months, a large number of AI-generated Pull Requests (code submissions) have poured in, which not only has uneven quality, but also increased the workload of maintenance personnel, and even described the entire situation as having become a “chaos.”
The official is not anti-AI, but can’t stand “AI garbage code”!
The Godot Foundation emphasized that the new policy is not a complete ban on AI tools. Auxiliary uses such as search data, autocomplete code, batch text replacement, etc. can still be used, as long as they are clearly disclosed. What is really prohibited is to directly submit a large amount of AI-generated code to the official project. Officials believe that many submitters do not understand the content of AI output at all. Once bugs occur, they are unable to be responsible for correction and maintenance. In the end, they will only throw the burden to other developers. Godot even bluntly stated that AI submission not only brings extra work, but also makes maintainers feel quite frustrated because they have to spend a lot of time cleaning up low-quality code.
Just because AI writes fast, doesn’t mean it writes well.
In recent years, more and more engineers have begun to use AI to assist in writing programs, but this has also caused a lot of controversy. Supporters believe that AI can improve efficiency, but opponents believe that if developers just copy and paste AI-generated content without truly understanding the program logic, they will only accumulate more technical debt in the long run. Godot’s direct modification of the official specifications this time has also become one of the few cases in the game engine field that publicly restricts AI program code.
AI is not blocked, what is blocked is “copy and paste”
This incident once again reflects the most controversial point of AI in the development circle. What really worries people is not that AI can write programs, but that someone just presses submit without even looking at it. It can only be said that AI can help you write the first line of programming, but at least in Godot’s view, the final person responsible must still be a human being.