Use of A.I. In Development Work

The use of artificial intelligence tools in software development introduces new challenges, particularly around code quality, traceability, and maintainability. The Legate project allows the use of AI-assisted tools to aid in code generation, provided the resulting contributions are consistent with the project’s licensing terms and quality standards.

Regardless of how code is produced, contributors are fully responsible for understanding, validating, and reviewing any code they submit. AI-generated code must be treated with the same scrutiny as handwritten code. Contributors are expected to ensure that such code meets the Legate project’s expectations for correctness, clarity, and maintainability.

Submissions that include code the contributor cannot explain, debug, or justify during review are not acceptable. Reviewers cannot be expected to validate code that even the author does not understand. Maintaining high-quality contributions is essential to project sustainability, and contributions that fall short of these standards will be rejected or removed as necessary.

While Legate maintains a permissive stance on the use of AI tools, they must not be used as a substitute for thoughtful engineering judgment, rigorous testing, and careful code review.