Andrew Kelley Interview: Why He Built Zig, Banned AI Contributions, and Moved Zig off GitHub
In a JetBrains interview, Zig creator Andrew Kelley expanded on the project’s formal ban on AI contributions and the motivation behind its migration off GitHub to Codeberg: automated code submissions decrease codebase quality and weaken the social constructs between open-source participants; persistent GitHub failures and a perceived misalignment of incentives led to migrating to Codeberg. By…
In an interview with JetBrains, Andrew Kelley, the creator of Zig, shared insights on the project's decision to ban AI contributions and its migration from GitHub to Codeberg. Kelley argued that automated code submissions, often generated by AI, result in poor-quality code and diminish the quality of the overall codebase. This is due to limited human resources that cannot scale with growing code volume, as well as the negative impact on software quality.
Kelley emphasized that these contributions take up valuable review time and ultimately waste everyone's time, as AI-generated code often lacks understanding and is merely copying existing code. Furthermore, Kelley highlighted the importance of Zig's educational mission, viewing code review as an investment in actual engineers who can grow into core contributors.
The main reason behind moving Zig's repository from GitHub to Codeberg was persistent CI failures on GitHub Actions, which disrupted the project's development process. This shift was also driven by a better alignment of incentives with nonprofits, as they prioritize stability over rapid growth and monetization.
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