Jeremy Meiss

AI (i.e. ML with better compute) is here to stay - there’s no denying that. But AI's capacity to provide genuine contributions is debatable - especially for open source projects. Projects are seeing a flood of AI-generated issues and pull requests, yet they lack the crucial human elements of context, intent, and accountability that open source thrives on. This isn't just a minor annoyance; it poses a direct threat to the sustainability of beloved projects and the maintainers who tirelessly support them.

The time to address AI in your CONTRIBUTING.md file is now. But what does that look like? How do we establish clear ground rules for AI-driven contributions (because not all are bad)? How do we define what a “meaningful contribution” is in today’s landscape, and how do we enforce the guidelines? This talk will put forward some thoughts and ideas for what a playbook might look like for your specific project, and some guidelines which can help ensure we embrace these new tools, while still keeping the spirit of open source intact.

Come along on this ADHD-fueled journey as Jeremy tells _some_ of his journey in tech, all while trying to stay on topic. He’ll dive into some of his early days “hunting squirrels” while also keeping the local librarians employed. He’ll also touch on his experiences through the early days of the internet (not ARPANET, but the “world wide web”) and how he learned to “cope” with this thing called ADHD, without _really_ coping with it, until he had to. You’ll hopefully laugh, probably cry, and that will just be from having to listen to him try to stay on topic.

How really important are mentorship and documentation to the survival of civilization? What would happen if we lost everything and had to start over, say, due to a global pandemic? We talk a lot about mentorship in the tech industry, but what do we really mean? Are we setting people up for success? In this talk, we’ll explore and seek to answer these questions, and come to some action steps to do our part.