Laurent Pinchart

Plot twist: it turns out that if you're not careful about what you say on mailing lists, you risk getting invited to the Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit. While the invitation didn't provide any reason, I chose to believe it indicates that the kernel community cares. I'll dismiss my fears of being summoned as a human sacrifice on the altar of AI gods, and will try my best to represent the community members who don't feel they can speak out in public. (4/5)

Despite having a thick skin, the whole experience felt very lonely. I received less support than I would have hoped for. What surprised me the most, though, was something else. Multiple people contacted me privately. They didn't just express their support, but also told they didn't dare speaking out in public. This included at least one kernel maintainer. I can't help feeling this is a sign that something is going wrong in the kernel community or the industry at large. Or probably both. (2/5)

I'm calling the community for help. If you would like your voice heard at the Maintainer Summit, please contact me by e-mail (laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com) to share your opinions on AI usage in the Linux kernel. Unless you explicitly request to be named, I will strictly respect your privacy and anonymize all the feedback I receive before sharing it with kernel maintainers. Please don't wait until the last minute as the week leading to the summit will be very busy. (5/5)

With my "How we can resist generative AI" BoF proposal for OSS Europe rejected, I've been thinking about other ways to give a voice to the underrepresented part of the community. There will be plenty of hallway space in Prague to meet for an "unconference" BoF. If you are interested in attending, please leave a reply or contact me by e-mail (laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com) with your availability. Wednesday is a candidate to benefit from the overlap between LPC and OSS. (3/5)

@kusma A moral aspect you haven't mentioned is that the companies behind LLMs are happy to ignore how their products are heavily used to manipulate public opinion and undermine democracy. Profits being favoured over democratic values isn't new, but I think we're taking it to a new extreme here.