Open-source maintainers face pressure from AI-generated reports

Open-source maintainers are facing increasing pressure due to a surge in AI-generated vulnerability reports, often described as ‘AI slop’—content that appears professional but lacks substantive value. This influx of low-quality reports has significantly increased the workload for maintainers, who must now spend extra time triaging and separating useful information from automated noise.

A 2024 survey by Tidelift indicates that 60 percent of surveyed maintainers earn no income from their roles, and only 26 percent of those who do earn more than 1,000 dollars annually. The combination of stress, lack of recognition, and inadequate compensation has led over half of respondents to consider or already having abandoned their projects. As a consequence of these pressures, the lead developer of the cURL project, Daniel Stenberg, announced the termination of cURL’s bug-bounty program scheduled for January 2026.