# Reddit's r/opensource Bans Projects That Use, Are Made by or Are Meant for AI

Times of AI Desk · 2026-10-26 · Industry

[https://timesof.ai/2026/10/reddit-r-opensource-bans-ai-projects](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/reddit-r-opensource-bans-ai-projects)

> Moderators of Reddit's r/opensource posted new rules on Saturday, October 24, saying projects that use AI, are made by AI or are intended for AI are not welcome. The Verge reports that the rules also require projects to be at least a year old with several contributors and turn away posts from people who do not speak English. The changes set off a backlash in the comments and a rival subreddit.

One of Reddit's main open-source forums has decided AI does not belong there at all, and much of its own community disagrees. Moderators of r/opensource posted the new rules on the evening of **Saturday, October 24**, The Verge reported.

## What the rules say

The post opens: "If your project uses AI, is made by AI, or is intended for AI, it's not welcome on r/opensource. AI, as it exists today, is incongruent to this Open Source community," according to The Verge. The Verge reports that submitted projects must also be at least one year old, actively maintained and have multiple contributors, and that moderators will no longer take requests for maintainers or contributors. It quotes the post as telling people who do not speak English to "find a different community," because moderators "cannot distinguish between AI-written and AI-translated."

## The reaction

The rules "set off a firestorm in the comments, and even spurred the creation of a rival sub," The Verge reports. A moderator replied in the comments that there is room for selective enforcement, citing "software that incidentally has accessibility features that use AI," such as automatic captions, according to The Verge. Commenters pointed out that the Linux kernel now contains some AI-generated code, so projects built on it could fall under the ban, The Verge says.

## Limits

- Reddit blocked our attempts to load the moderators' post, so every quote and rule here comes from The Verge's report.
- We have not checked how the moderators are enforcing the rules or how many members have left.
- r/opensource is one community on Reddit; its rules do not speak for open-source projects or foundations.

## Sources

- [The Verge: r/opensource just banned AI, non-English speakers, and more (October 25, 2026)](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1018217/reddit-opensource-ai-ban)