Unfortunately, LLMs empower "contributors" who can't be bothered to put in any effort and who don't care about the negative impact of their actions on the maintainers.
The open-source community, generally speaking, is a high-trust society and I'm afraid that LLM abuse may turn it into a low-trust society. The end result will be worse than the status quo for everyone involved.
Everything is collapsing toward a low-trust default. At the end of this trajectory, we rediscover that the analog world becomes valuable precisely because it can't be infinitely replicated.
Authenticity becomes the foundational currency.
But everyone must master AI tools to stay relevant. The brilliant engineer who refuses AI-generated PR by principle will get replaced. Every 18-24 months, as capabilities double, required skills shift. Specialization diminishes. Learning velocity becomes the only durable advantage. These people cannot learn new tricks.
Those who cannot question their assumptions cannot self-correct and will be replaced. The future belongs to the humble, the fluid, and the resilient. 60% of HN users is going toward a very tough time, and I am being very charitable with this assumption.
The open-source community, generally speaking, is a high-trust society and I'm afraid that LLM abuse may turn it into a low-trust society. The end result will be worse than the status quo for everyone involved.