Re: Proposed draft of an AI policy

You've convinced me.

On Mon, May 25, 2026, 13:51 Norm Tovey-Walsh <norm@saxonica.com> wrote:

> Per my action, QT4CG-0165-01, here’s an attempt at an AI policy:
>
> Contributions must not include content generated by large language models
> (LLMs) or other probabilistic tools (including tools which are often
> colloquially categorized as "AI").
>
> This policy applies to the specifications, tests, issues, comments, pull
> requests, and any other contributions to QT4CG.
>
> Although we acknowledge the many widely discussed ethical issues with
> LLMs, we will not refer to those issues as a primary justification for this
> policy. Instead, the specific justifications for the policy are practical.
>
> For most members of the community group, our efforts are focused on
> document review. Reviewing technical specifications requires comparing what
> the specification says with an understanding of what was proposed by the
> group and determining if they are aligned. This is a time-consuming process.
>
> LLMs are exceptionally good at producing large volumes of very /plausible/
> text, but that plausibility is a statistical parlour trick: the LLM does
> not understand and cannot evaluate the output against any objective
> criteria.
>
> Any process that increases the volume of material that has to be reviewed
> must be held to the highest standard of intellectual contribution.
>
> A secondary practical concern is that LLMs have been trained on an
> enormous corpus of material, sometimes obtained in violation of copyright
> and other laws. Their output often includes verbatim samples of the
> training data. Incorporating such prose into the specifications may
> unknowingly violate licenses of copyrighted works.
>
> For these practical reasons, QT4CG does not accept content that has been
> generated or substantially constructed using LLMs, "AI", or any similar
> probabilistic tools.
>
> If you are uncertain whether the tool you wish to use, or the way in which
> you wish to use it, is covered by this policy, you are very welcome to
> discuss it with the CG's Chair.
>
>                                         Be seeing you,
>                                           norm
>
> --
> Norm Tovey-Walsh
> CEO, Saxonica
>
>