AI_POLICY.md

Rama main · réplica de lectura del repositorio original.

# Beaver's AI Policy

## Overview

This policy outlines the guidelines for contributions that involve the use of AI (artificial intelligence) tools, including LLMs (large language models), code generation, and other AI-assisted tools. This document will evolve as AI technology and its regulation evolve.

## Motives

AI tools are powerful assistants that can help contributors become more productive, when configured and used correctly. They also serve as a learning tool for new contributors who may not have the expertise to contribute without AI assistance.

This policy aims at encouraging the use of AI tools within the Beaver Notes project to boost productivity and efficiency while maintaining transparency and accountability. This allows the community to learn and refine our policies and practices accordingly in order to maximise the value of these tools.

## Contributors Accountability

AI tools can produce verbose, over-engineered, or superficially-correct code that places a disproportionate review burden on maintainers. Disclosure creates accountability and helps ensure contributors take ownership of AI-assisted work. Contributors are expected to:

- Thoroughly review and understand every line of AI-generated code before submission
- Refine and groom AI output to meet project quality standards
- Take full ownership of all submitted content regardless of origin

Low-effort submissions that appear to be unreviewed AI output may be rejected without detailed feedback until properly refined. This applies to all contributions, but is particularly relevant for AI-assisted work.

## Legal and Copyright Rationale

Disclosure also serves important legal purposes. Copyright law in this area is continuously evolving, and as of current legal guidance, computer-generated work may not be considered an original work eligible for copyright protection in many jurisdictions. Additionally:

- AI training data may originate from materials with unclear or incompatible licenses
- Some AI tool vendors may retain rights to generated output, which could
  conflict with open source licensing
- Proper attribution helps maintain the integrity of the project's licensing under MIT

For further reading on these legal considerations, see the [OpenInfra Foundation
AI Policy](https://openinfra.org/legal/ai-policy/) and [AI-Assisted Development
and Open Source: Navigating Legal
Issues](https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/ai-assisted-development-and-open-source-navigating-legal-issues).

## AI Tool Usage Requirements

### Disclosure

All AI-generated code, documentation, and or content **MUST BE DISCLOSED** to the project maintainers before submission.

Disclosure **SHOULD** take the form of a trailer line within the commit
attributing the AI tool used. Acceptable formats include:

- `Assisted-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>`
- `Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>`
- `Generated-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>`

Many AI coding tools automatically add `Co-authored-by` trailers, this is
acceptable and need not be changed to `Assisted-by`.

Authors **MUST** still adhere to Beaver's Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO) requirements and sign off commits.

This will be aided through the use of the emerging
[AGENT.md](https://ampcode.com/AGENT.md) standard with symlinks provided to the
in project prompt configuration files of various agents. An example file will
be created within the [`Beaver-Notes/.github`](https://github.com/Beaver-Notes/Beaver-Notes/.github)
repository for projects to use as a base.

### Scope of Disclosure

Disclosure is expected when AI tools have materially contributed to the
submitted content.

**Requires disclosure:**

- AI wrote a function, class, or significant code block that you included
- AI suggested an algorithm, architecture, or approach you adopted
- AI generated tests, documentation, or commit messages you used
- AI-suggested solutions, refactoring, or significant debugging help that
  shaped the final implementation

**Does not require disclosure:**

- General Q&A or learning (even if it informed your approach)
- IDE autocomplete (Copilot line completions, IntelliSense, Zed autocomplete)
- Using AI to explain existing code
- Asking AI to review your human-written code
- Spell checking or minor syntax corrections
- Content that has been substantially rewritten such that the original AI
  output is no longer recognizable

When in doubt, err on the side of disclosure, transparency benefits the
community.

## Acceptable Uses of AI Tools

AI tools are **accepted** as development assistants for:

- **Code scaffolding**: Generating boilerplate code and initial implementations
- **Refactoring**: Suggesting code improvements and modernization
- **Testing**: Creating test cases and test data
- **Documentation**: Drafting technical documentation and code comments
- **Debugging**: Identifying potential issues and suggesting fixes
- **Research**: Exploring architectural approaches and best practices

## Contributor Responsibilities

Contributors are encouraged to leverage AI tools and are responsible to review and understand the content they are contributing. For code this must meet the existing coding standards for the project.

## Community Perspectives on AI Contributions

### Alternative Approaches

The Beaver community recognizes that other projects have varying approaches to AI-generated contributions:

**Restrictive Approach**: Some projects, such as QEMU, have adopted policies to decline AI-generated contributions entirely. QEMU's position is based on:

- Uncertain copyright and licensing status of AI-generated content
- Potential conflicts with Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO)
- Legal risks from training materials with restrictive licensing

**Permissive Approach**: Other projects, including those under the Linux
Foundation umbrella, allow AI-generated contributions with proper disclosure and review.

Beaver, like KubeVirt, has chosen a **balanced, disclosure-based approach** that emphasizes transparency, human oversight, and community review while leveraging AI tools' productivity benefits.

## Legal and Licensing Considerations

### Copyright Compliance

Contributors must ensure that:

- AI tool terms of service do not conflict with MIT licensing
- No copyrighted material is inadvertently included in AI-generated output
- All third-party content is properly attributed and licensed
- The Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO) can be legitimately signed

### Employer Policies

Contributors should verify that their use of AI tools complies with their
employer's policies regarding AI-generated code in open source contributions.

## Review Process

### Review Criteria

As with [all contributions to the
project](https://github.com/Beaver-Notes/Beaver-Notes/blob/development/CONTRIBUTING.md)
reviewers should evaluate:

- Code quality and adherence to project standards
- Appropriate test coverage
- Security implications
- Long-term maintainability

## Policy Evolution

This policy will be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect:

- Changes in AI technology capabilities
- Legal and regulatory developments
- Community feedback and experience
- Industry best practices

This policy could be eventually removed once these tools become standard
development tools and the policy is superseded by other contribution
requirements.

## Questions and Clarifications

For questions about this policy, please open a discussion in the [#beaver-notes](https://github.com/orgs/Beaver-Notes/discussions) GitHub discussions under the Q&A channel.

## References

- [Linux Foundation Generative AI
  Guidelines](https://www.linuxfoundation.org/legal/generative-ai)
- [Avocado Framework AI
  Policy](https://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/contributor/chapters/ai_policy.html)
- [QEMU Code Provenance
  Policy](https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/devel/code-provenance.html#use-of-ai-content-generators)
- [Ghostty AI Policy](https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/AI_POLICY.md)
- [AGENT.md](https://ampcode.com/AGENT.md)
- [KubeVirt Developer's Certificate of
  Origin](https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/blob/main/DCO)
- [KubeVirt AI Policy](https://github.com/kubevirt/community/blob/main/ai-contribution-policy.md)