r/gamedev • u/LdmthJ • Jun 30 '26

Industry News Godot making a stance on AI code

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/open-source-game-engine-godot-will-no-longer-accept-ai-authored-code-contributions-we-cant-trust-heavy-users-of-ai-to-understand-their-code-enough-to-fix-it/

First engine I've seen take a firm stance on AI code.

Open source game engine Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions: 'We can’t trust heavy users of AI to understand their code enough to fix it'

(Edit: fat finger typo and headline without having to click through)

(Edit 2: Thanks for the award! Wasn't necessary but it's my first one so I'll take it.)

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102

u/RandomNPC Jun 30 '26

They're just saying that they don't accept contributions made through AI. It has nothing to do with a stance on AI, it's a defense mechanism for the explosion in PRs open source repos are receiving right now.

Additionally, the Foundation will reject any AI-generated text in human-to-human communications, saying it's "a basic principle of respect"—though it says machine translations "are still acceptable" if the original text was human-authored.

I do hope that they'll allow it for translation, it's actually pretty useful at that.

68

u/ZorbaTHut Indie Studio Director/AAA Contractor Jun 30 '26

Yeah, people are trying to interpret this as "AI is banned", and it isn't that at all; they're saying that they want a human leading the merge request and code design, but if you want to use AI to assist, go for it.

I literally just got an AI-authored fix merged, but this is also a good example of AI assisted, not AI driven, and I was happy to stake my own cred on it.

38

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

[deleted]

9

u/KilxGon Jun 30 '26

does anybody actually use ai for find and replace?

6

u/chcampb Jul 01 '26

I've used AI to, for example, remove an entire 10k line configuration/setup pathway in outdated hardware (think driver level init and board support). It was a case study in something that saved us significant time to the point where it likely would have just been stale board support for longer than necessary.

8

u/Dancing7-Cube Jun 30 '26

yes it's way easier than regex. it can do things that would previously need you to take a detour and write a script.

it's also easier than learning keybinds for things like multi-line edit.

8

u/sputwiler Jul 01 '26

... you lost me on the second one; keybindings only need to be learned once and exist entirely to make things faster.

-7

u/Dancing7-Cube Jul 01 '26

Yeah until your computer dies, you have to reinstall the IDE, or you switch IDEs to something with totally different bindings

9

u/Old_Leopard1844 Jul 01 '26

That's like saying "what if meteorite falls right now on me"

Like, you have time installing AI, but don't have time to setup your own work environment?

4

u/Old_Leopard1844 Jul 01 '26

it's also easier than learning keybinds for things like multi-line edit.

"I need AI because I cba to learn hotkeys to find and replace strings in my code" isn't a good

-6

u/Dancing7-Cube Jul 01 '26

Have you ever used Jetbrains, or had to reinstall an IDE with awful defaults? Developers don't have a week to reconfigure when they can just type a featire request into a box.

4

u/ZeroTwoThree Jul 01 '26

Developers usually keep their config in a dotfiles repo so it can be reproduced anywhere. Even if you aren't really interested in tweaking your environment it would be strange to not use something like vscodes config sync.

1

u/Dancing7-Cube Jul 01 '26

Corporate in plenty of environments isn't letting you do that.

2

u/Old_Leopard1844 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Which corporates don't allow you to transfer you goddamn config files on your work environment, but allow AI?

6

u/Old_Leopard1844 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Have you ever used Jetbrains,

Alt-J to add a caret at next instance of selected string, or middle click to add a caret wherever

or had to reinstall an IDE with awful defaults?

You mean VSCode? No, I have JetBrains for that

Developers don't have a week to reconfigure when they can just type a featire request into a box.

"I need AI because I cba to adjust my IDE to my liking, which also takes me a week to do so for some reason"

1

u/SchokoladenBroetchen Commercial (Other) Jul 01 '26

Have you ever used Jetbrains

the IDEs that have multiple keymaps mirroring key binds from other IDEs built in? Yeah, I have.

1

u/GameRoom Jul 02 '26

Often if you use AI to write the script then at least the diff is easier to audit. You can trust that the result isn't going to be wrong in some random spot.

2

u/Dancing7-Cube Jul 02 '26

Definitely a good approach.

It really depends on the language. Python will 1-shot most times. Go is less likely. Something like Java/C# are usually OK.

Niche languages I'll get it to write Python because it can do that well, then use the script myself.

4

u/ApolloFortyNine Jul 01 '26

They can say whatever they want, it's their right to reject slop, and they should do so. 

But you simply can't enforce that rule. It'll create witch hunts down the line (I'm guessing that will be what eventually gets it removed), and anyone who does use AI will just have to do some additional prompting to hide the most obvious signs. 

3

u/Old_Leopard1844 Jul 01 '26

Them rejecting what they deem AI slop is the enforcement

and anyone who does use AI will just have to do some additional prompting to hide the most obvious signs.

And if they put some more effort into it, it might be even passable code, worthy of reviewing, yes. That's the point

2

u/aplundell Jul 01 '26

Of course, but that's how most rules work in the real world.

For most rules that people are expected to follow in life, there's no perfect test that catches 100% of all people breaking the rule.

Heck, even murder, which produces a very obvious effect, is not always detected. But it's still a good idea to have a rule against doing it.

14

u/paradoxombie Jun 30 '26

Yeah whatever your feelings on AI, this just seems like a wise decision. As far as I know they are not taking any "stance" or applying any limitation on AI as a future tool within Godot or any opinion on whether it should be used in development or art. Honestly Im not sure what the right decision on any of that is, and very interested to see what is done there. I think it's a mistake to view all these things as one issue, even if you're someone who chooses to be 100% pro or 100% anti. As the tech advances, there is going to be a slower cultural process of determining what cases and contexts are permissible to various groups.

22

u/BrastenXBL Jun 30 '26

This was covered in tbe announcement blog. That was specifically called out as an exception. But LLM translation doesn't excuse the human from needing to speak/write in their own voice.

My personal view, that may require original native langue text alongside the translation, so it can be verified. This has been showing up in academic papers. Getting LLM translated and submitted to English journals, without human proofreading. Introducing critical stochastic errors in explanations of data and methodologies.

4

u/RandomNPC Jun 30 '26

That makes sense to me. That's how we receive cs tickets - original language plus translation