We are working on revised DEV AI guidelines for the community to help ensure the most authentic content rises to the top. We will also be launching new features on DEV which put more weight on human curation by community leaders, to further help the best stuff rise to the top.
Human connection, authentic discussions, and direct peer-to-peer knowledge sharing remain the heart of our community. At the same time, people are using AI tools to help craft their posts, and to an extent there is allowance for autonomous posting by creatively developed bots — as long as it is done without deception, and we provide tools for authors and readers to navigate this to their desired intentions.
To bring transparency and nuance to how content is created and consumed, we’re introducing AI Disclosure on DEV. Disclosure has been part of our AI policy since we first wrote them.
Our AI policy was first crafted in 2024, with some small updates along the way. We will be making updates to this policy with this disclosure feature as a complement to how we can collectively work together as a community. With Hacktoberfest having a focus on open source AI, we see it as especially important that our tooling and policies are as up-to-date as possible for the benefit of the community and larger ecosystem.
The Three Tiers of Disclosure
When creating or editing an article, authors can now select an explicit AI disclosure tier:
- Hand Written (No AI): Written entirely by a human without meaningful assistance from AI text-generation tools.
- AI-Assisted (Some AI): Written by a human with the aid of AI tooling (e.g., rough drafting with an agent while coding, generating code samples, major copyedits, or translations).
- Fully Autonomous: Content generated primarily or entirely by automated agents or LLMs.
Nuance Over Dogmatism
We want to provide the right framework for different use cases:
- Helpful Assistance is Normal: Brainstorming with an LLM while debugging, generating boilerplate, or using an agent to outline your notes is a standard workflow. If you use AI to assist your writing, disclose it as AI-Assisted. You are still the author and maintain full accountability for the accuracy and quality of what you publish.
- Autonomous Bots Have Value—When Transparent: An automated bot that summarizes CVE security alerts, tracks open-source release logs, or compiles benchmark digests can be genuinely useful. But undisclosed autonomy is problematic and deceptive. Disclosing autonomous generation allows readers to evaluate the context appropriately. This is clearly the area with the most uncertainty, and/or controversy, but as a community of creative toolmakers, it is critical to us that we address it with skill and intent.
Authorship and Guidelines
Disclosure is not a loophole around our core community standards. Quality, original insight, and human accountability still matter.
- Deception is not permitted: Publishing low-effort, undisclosed AI-generated content or presenting synthetic output as firsthand human experience violates our guidelines and may result in account suspension.
- Progressive rollout: The introduction of this tool does not represent an overnight shift in moderation enforcement, but rather the foundation for clear expectations and fair community standards.
What’s Next: Feed Preferences & Reader Controls
Transparency is only step one. We are currently building Feed Preferences that will allow you to customize your reading experience—including options to reduce or filter out AI-assisted or autonomous posts from your home feed based on your personal preferences.
AI Content in Feed is now an option you can select from in your settings. The ways in which this will affect your feed exactly will be an evolution over time. Of course since our codebase is open source via Forem, you are welcome to peruse the implementation exactly.
Happy coding!
