AI is ruining open source

AI is creating serious problems for open source maintainers through PR spam, lower-quality contributions, and increasingly toxic users who lack foundational understanding. Projects like TL Draw are closing external PRs entirely, Node.js has raised bug reporting requirements due to AI spam, and maintainers are burning out faster than ever. The funding model for open source is also deteriorating as AI tools reduce the need to purchase templates, courses, or UI kits. Community tools like Vouch (a trust-based PR filtering system) and PR Stats offer partial solutions, but GitHub itself is criticized for failing to provide adequate moderation tools. The Open Source Pledge—where companies commit $2,000/dev/year to open source—is highlighted as a meaningful funding initiative. Developers are urged to be kind to maintainers, contribute thoughtfully, help triage issues, and financially support the projects they rely on.