Use it to debug and review, says Big Red, but don't submit its output
Oracle has told contributors to OpenJDK – the open source Java project it stewards – not to submit code or other material generated by AI. In a post tagged "legal," Oracle said it was drafting a full policy on generative AI but had set interim ground rules. It cited risks involving review workloads, safety, security, and intellectual property. "Contributions in the OpenJDK Community must not include content generated, in part or in full, by large language models, diffusion models, or similar deep-learning systems. Content, in this context, includes but is not limited to source code, text, and images in OpenJDK Git repositories, GitHub pull requests, e-mail messages, wiki pages, and Java Bug System issues," the post said.
Big Red said developers could still use LLM-based tools privately to "help comprehend, debug, and review OpenJDK code and other content, and to do research related to OpenJDK Projects," provided they did not contribute material generated by those tools.
The post elaborated on the potential burden for reviewers and the safety, security, and intellectual property concerns surrounding AI-generated contributions. Oracle noted that OpenJDK is the primary Java implementation for many organizations and underpins mission-critical systems worldwide. "Safety and security are paramount. Plausible-looking but incorrect code would put these critical properties at risk," the vendor said. The caution contrasts with Oracle's enthusiasm for AI-generated code inside its own walls."The code that Oracle is writing, Oracle isn't writing," co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison told Oracle AI World 2025. "Our AI models are writing. We just tell the model what we want the program to do, and then the AI comes up with a step-by-step process to actually do it. We don't write the procedure. We declare our intent, but the model writes the step-by-step procedure; that thing we commonly think of as a computer program."Earlier this year, co-CEO Mike Sicilia said: "AI tools and their coding capabilities would be a threat if we weren't adopting them, but we are and very rapidly. The use of AI coding tools inside Oracle is enabling smaller engineering teams to deliver more complete solutions to our customers more quickly."
