Starting 2026, Google has strong advice about the usage of Generative AI in the GSoC program. Please check them at:
- For Mentoring Orgs: Usage of AI tooling in Google Summer of Code 2026 (for Mentoring Orgs)
- For Contributors: Guidance for GSoC Contributors using AI tooling in GSoC 2026 doc
Based on the suggestions from Google, SW360 has the following guidelines for GSoC contributors:
- Usage of AI in proposal writing: The proposal writing is a core part of
the GSoC program and it should never be offloaded to the AI completely. This
is the place where you would most probably meet the organization for the
first time and show your creativity, so use this space wisely.
- Generative AI usage is allowed, but to do tasks like formatting, rearranging, etc.
- Usage of Generative AI is strictly prohibited for creating the proposal idea itself (includes the end goal, the approach) and proposal will be penalized if such usage found.
- Usage of AI in coding: We have seen in previous contributions that people
do not install SW360 at all while they are working on their contributions. If
you cannot see the tool, if you cannot test your changes, how can you
validate the changes you have done are correct. It then becomes the
responsibility of the maintainer to do a thorough testing, always, which
takes more time than for the person contributing the changes. AI also does
not know everything. Even if you are using coding agents to help you, but you
cannot provide them the right input, their output will only be garbage.
- For you first few PR, we require you to provide evidence of SW360 installation by providing information like API version, SW360 version, screenshot/example output from the changes.
- Taking help from AI is fine, but completely relying on it is not good for the project and for you.
- Take suggestions from the AI, but always understand changes before pushing them. If you cannot understand the code generated, do not push it.
- If you are pushing the code, you are responsible for it, it does not matter a human wrote it or an AI. Thus, take your contributions seriously. We like to work with humans more than machines.
- If the code changes are not clear and without any human explanation, the maintainers hold the rights to close the PR without further explanation.
- Acceptance criteria: Last year SW360 did not had any acceptance criteria
to make it easy for everyone to apply. However, this lead to number of
proposals which became impossible to manage. Thus, starting this year, we
want to add following to the list of criteria for your proposal to be
considered:
- There should be at least one contribution with significant enough changes (simple typo fix for example do not qualify).
- If you could not have created a PR, you should at least had communicated with one of the Org member and they should vouch for you.
Please feel free to drop any questions here (or start a new discussion) you have regarding the program, you want to submit a proposal idea, you want to be a mentor in the program, etc.