[License-review] [SUBMISSION] AI-MIT License 1.0 — permissive license for AI-generated code

[Pamela Chestek]

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Pam

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
300 Fayetteville Street
Unit 2492
Raleigh, NC 27602
pamela at chesteklegal.com
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On 3/12/2026 4:21 AM, Nik wrote:
> Dear OSI License Review Committee,
>
> I am submitting the **AI-MIT License, Version 1.0** for consideration 
> by the Open Source Initiative.
>
> ## Summary
>
> The AI-MIT License is a permissive open-source license designed to 
> address a genuine gap: existing licenses were written for human 
> authors and handle AI-generated code poorly, creating false 
> implications about authorship and copyright status.
>
> The license is deliberately minimal — it preserves the structure and 
> permissiveness of the MIT License while adding three targeted changes 
> for the AI context.
>
> ## The problem it solves
>
> 1. **False authorship implication.** When `Copyright (c) [year] 
> [author]` is applied to fully AI-generated code, it implies human 
> authorship and copyright that may not legally exist in most jurisdictions.
>
> 2. **No standard for disclosure.** There is no widely adopted 
> mechanism for disclosing whether code is AI-generated, AI-assisted, or 
> human-authored. This matters for supply-chain security, regulatory 
> compliance (EU AI Act), and intellectual honesty in open source.
>
> 3. **Undefined copyright status.** Fully autonomous AI-generated code 
> (no human creative input) is in a legal grey zone in most 
> jurisdictions. A license that claims copyright over it is at best 
> misleading, at worst invalid.
>
> ## What the license does differently from MIT
>
> The license adds one structural element (the Authorship Declaration) 
> and three conditions/clauses:
>
> **Authorship Declaration** — a required checkbox at the top of the 
> LICENSE file with three modes:
> - *Fully AI-generated*: no copyright claimed; code dedicated to public 
> domain
> - *AI-assisted*: human-directed, AI-generated; standard copyright applies
> - *Human-authored*: AI used as a tool only; identical to MIT posture
>
> **Condition 2 — Transparency**: redistribution or use as AI training 
> data must not misrepresent AI origin as human authorship.
>
> **Condition 3 — No Copyright Claim**: for fully autonomous code, 
> explicit public domain dedication (with a perpetual irrevocable 
> fallback for jurisdictions where public domain dedication is impossible).
>
> **Extended disclaimer**: adds three AI-specific disclaimers about 
> training data provenance, regulatory compliance, and jurisdictional 
> limitations of the authorship declaration.
>
> ## OSD compliance analysis
>
> 1. **Free Redistribution** ✓ — no restriction on sale or distribution
> 2. **Source Code** ✓ — no source restriction
> 3. **Derived Works** ✓ — modification and redistribution permitted
> 4. **Integrity of the Author's Source Code** ✓ — no patch-file 
> requirement; attribution preserved
> 5. **No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups** ✓
> 6. **No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor** ✓
> 7. **Distribution of License** ✓ — same rights apply to all recipients
> 8. **License Must Not Be Specific to a Product** ✓
> 9. **License Must Not Restrict Other Software** ✓
> 10. **License Must Be Technology-Neutral** ✓
>
> The Transparency condition (Condition 2) requires disclosure of AI 
> origin but does not restrict use in any field — it is an 
> attribution/honesty requirement, not a field-of-endeavor restriction.
>
> ## SPDX identifier
>
> We are concurrently requesting the SPDX identifier `AI-MIT-1.0` 
> through the SPDX GitHub repository.
>
> ## Repository
>
> The full license text, README, translations, and supporting materials 
> are available at:
> https://github.com/ai-mit-license/ai-mit-license
>
> ## A note on meta-context
>
> This license was initially drafted with AI assistance (Claude, 
> Anthropic) at the direction of a human. We believe this is appropriate 
> and have disclosed it in the repository. The license is itself an 
> example of the category of work it governs.
>
> We welcome feedback from the committee and the community at large.
>
> Respectfully,
> Nik
>
> _______________________________________________
> The opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and not necessarily those of the Open Source Initiative. Communication from the Open Source Initiative will be sent from an opensource.org email address.
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