2026-10-12 / Signal #1
QGIS is voting to ban AI code — and asked humans for a “proof of life
“The app that maps the planet is about to require proof you’re alive before you can change a line.”
The Story
The QGIS mapping project has moved QEP428, “No ai contributions permitted,” into voting after maintainers said LLM pull requests were drowning human review. The draft policy is blunt: no LLM, AI, or agent-assisted code in the core repo, with reversion and contributor sanctions if it’s discovered later. A parallel mailing-list thread floated a “proof of life” for new contributors — donation, ID, or even a face-to-face meeting — because forged documents and “karma farming AI sloppers” made ordinary trust fail.
Why It Matters
The software that draws the world is installing a human checkpoint. Maps used to be a commons; now the commons needs proof you have a body.
Evidence
GitHub QEP428 / PR #387; OSGeo mailing list; Hacker News (98 pts, ~1h)
Sources
Daily scan: 2026-10-12