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Re: AI slop "contributions" to IETF working groups

Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com> Tue, 10 February 2026 04:17 UTC

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Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:17:21 +1300
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Subject: Re: AI slop "contributions" to IETF working groups
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On 10-Feb-26 16:31, George Michaelson wrote:
> Not to disagree with anything said, what would people want from our mechanistic processes when a breach is discovered, especially when it's discovered late in process like during AUTHOR48

George, if our WG Last Call/Shepherd review/IETF Last Call/IESG review sequence doesn't find an AI-induced error, I'm not sure we should blame the AI. I don't see any difference from human error, by the time we send a draft off to the RFC people. All I'm saying is that it should be acknowledged up front and verified by a human before posting.

In any case, AI isn't automatically bad. For example, I could imagine designing a protocol and then asking an AI to look for race conditions**. As others have said, there are many valid uses of AI.

** We probably aren't quite there yet, but see:
https://chatgpt.com/share/698aaede-0438-8002-bc1f-a3b3b7411c52

So having an AI verify our designs is probably coming Real Soon Now.

     Brian

> 
> If you want specific outcomes like a stall, or a reject then it's going to need careful definition and probably implies other process cost like appeals.
> 
> G (no hats)
> 
> On Tue, 10 Feb 2026, 10:28 Cheng Li, <c.l=40huawei.com@dmarc.ietf.org <mailto:40huawei.com@dmarc.ietf.org>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     Agree with Bob and Brian that we need to request a disclosure of using AI.
> 
>     I do not like to read an AI generated document, especially, without human checking, feeling unprofessional and uncomfortable.
> 
> 
> 
>     Thanks,
>     Cheng
> 
> 
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>     李呈 Li Cheng
>     Mobile: +86-15116983550(中国电话)
>     Mail: c.l@huawei.com <mailto:c.l@huawei.com>
> 
>     *发件人：*Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com <mailto:brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com>>
>     *收件人：*ietf@ietf.org <mailto:ietf@ietf.org> <ietf@ietf.org <mailto:ietf@ietf.org>>
>     *时 间：*2026-02-10 04:14:21
>     *主 题：*Re: AI slop "contributions" to IETF working groups
> 
>     On 08-Feb-26 14:55, John Levine wrote:
>     > It appears that Bob Hinden  <bob.hinden@gmail.com <mailto:bob.hinden@gmail.com>> said:
>     >> I like the idea of requiring a disclosure that an Internet Draft was written with AI tools.  I agree probably not for emails.
>     > 
>     > I expect that the people whose drafts most suffer from being written by an LLM will lie about it, either because
>     > their English is too poor to understand the rules, or they have perverse incentives like an an employer that
>     > gives them a bonus for publishing an RFC.
>     > 
>     > Then what?  I'm not saying we shouldn't ask, but I'm saying we need to be prepared for noncompliance.
> 
>     Of course, but if we make it a submission requirement - check the "AI used" box - there's really no harm, no shame.
> 
>     Actually there are perhaps two boxes to check:
> 
>     1. Was AI used in the production of this draft? [yes/no]
>     2. If yes, did the authors personally verify the AI-generated material? [yes/no]
> 
>     The attachment was generated by ChatGPT.
> 
>          Brian
>

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