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

[Simon Phipps]

Independently of any evaluation of the license itself (it was not attached
to the request), I am concerned that the use of "MIT" in the proposed
license name implies an association with Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. As far as I can see the only association is the assertion that
this license continues the spirit of the existing license under that name,
which used the name validly.

Respectfully

Simon
(in a personal capacity)

On Fri, Mar 13, 2026 at 1:56 PM Nik <nik.sharky at gmail.com> 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
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