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Re: AI slop "contributions" to IETF working groups

Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org> Wed, 11 February 2026 05:38 UTC

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Subject: Re: AI slop "contributions" to IETF working groups
From: Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org>
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Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2026 06:38:02 +0100
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To: Rich Kulawiec <rsk@gsp.org>
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On Feb 10, 2026, at 20:49, Rich Kulawiec <rsk@gsp.org> wrote:
> 
> […] (To be clear,
> yes, I'm suggesing a ban on the use of AI.)
> […]
> I share this concern.  Our current situation reminds me very much of
> 40-ish years ago, when a nascent problem some of us called "mass mail abuse"
> was annoying but relatively small.   It didn't stay that way.  These
> problems never stay that way, and most of the time, the rate at which
> they spiral out of control is higher than even pessimistic estimates.

I’m sure a ban on LLM usage will work exactly as well as banning spam did(†).

Please also note that us people who use English as a foreign language are going to continue using all NLP tools we can get our hands on, such as spell-checkers, grammar checkers, autocompletion, search engines, LLM-based suggestions for improved language, etc.
(I’m not giving up my calculator(*) either.)

Grüße, Carsten

(†) Maybe that’s optimistic.  Spam is spam on the surface, LLM damage may be done at a deeper level.
In any case, the problem will stay around at least as an annoyance.

(*) In the 1970s, my father had a role in introducing calculators into regular school classroom usage in our federal state.
Lots of deja-vu in the discussion here…

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