Flood of AI 'garbage' threatens open-source software

AI-generated code is overwhelming human volunteers who must check and approve it, causing burnout and threatening the future of open-source software. GitHub received 1 billion new code submissions in 2025 and is on track for 14 billion this year. Open-source developers rely on human volunteers to maintain digital infrastructure, but the growing burden is causing many to leave the community. Chad Whitacre, who runs the open-source team at Sentry, stepped down due to the demands of checking AI-generated code.