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Pop!_OS bans AI-generated code from much of its codebase

116 points · 167 comments · bundie

  1. ItsMattyG · · focus · HN ↗
    I don't see how this will survive the attacker/defender gap as ls get increasingly good at cyber security and finding 0 days... but maybe it's an obscure enough is it doesn't matter?
    1. PorciiVorbesc · · focus · HN ↗
      Probably because pop_os and Cosmic are so niche and their market share so insignificant, that they're irrelevant to attackers and bad actors, when those now have much bigger fish to fry to make their time and effort worth it. See the Arch AUR attacks, for perspective.

      I think even amongst the HN and Linux userbase, pop_os is still niche, let alone amongst normies who never heard about Linux. So they can afford take the high road and treat it like their personal sandbox, accepting only human written code.

      But larger and more important projects like Fedora and Debian are more pragmatic with the fact that they'll have to accept AI written(but human reviewed) code, if they wish to keep up with the real world development and threats, as expressed by Linus Torvalds himself.

      The thing is, the cat's out of the bag on this one now, especially in the field of pen-testing and reverse-engineering. AI can brute-force its way into projects in ways that beat even experienced researchers, so your only choice to keep up is to accept the use of AI generated fixes as a counter defense.

      1. iugtmkbdfil834 · · focus · HN ↗
        << Probably because pop_os and Cosmic are so niche and their market share so low, that they're irrelevant to attackers and bad actors, when those now have much bigger fish to fry.

        That is such a weird statement that I am not entirely certain where to begin. PopOS is hardly niche. Its base are all fairly common components by linux standards. And, more importantly, attackers and bad actors may other considerations in mind than sheer population size -- just to point out the glaringly obvious.

        << I think even amongst the HN and Linux userbase, pop_os is still niche

        I think rather than trying to disprove it, I think I should ask why you think that? If anything, PopOS annoys me because it is just a step before ubuntu ( and ubuntu is just windows at this point ). Maybe I am defensive, because my first real distribution ( that did not share disk with windows was popos )?

        1. PorciiVorbesc · · focus · HN ↗

          [dead]

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