cURL 是一个自 1996 年发布以来几乎无处不在的开源软体专案，其核心程式库 libcurl 已被安装超过两百亿次，负责处理网路请求中的协议细节。瑞典开发者 Daniel Stenberg 是该专案的创建者与全职维护者，他与超过三千名贡献者共同维护这个构成网际网路「隐形管道」的关键基础设施。然而，大多数使用者甚至不知道 cURL 的存在，正如人们打开水龙头时不会去想水泵的运作原理一样。
AI 程式码工具的兴起为开源维护者带来了严峻挑战。大量由 AI 生成的低品质程式码贡献（即「AI 垃圾」）涌入开源专案，迫使 cURL 终止了其漏洞赏金计划，tldraw 的创建者 Steve Ruiz 则完全关闭了外部贡献。研究者 Miklós Koren 的论文《Vibe Coding Kills Open Source》指出，当软体的使用者越来越多是机器人而非人类时，驱动开源协作模式的社会经济激励将会瓦解，开源生态系统的长期存续面临威胁。
文章进一步探讨了 AI 对软体开发教育与知识生态的冲击。Stack Overflow 的月提问量从十万多骤降至不到一千五百，开发者教育课程的报名人数也大幅下滑。Python 之父 Guido van Rossum 和 Svelte 框架创建者 Rich Harris 等人担忧，软体开发正从公开协作的模式转向依赖少数科技巨头私有产品的模式，而维护工作——这项不易被捷径取代的细致劳动——在「创造者经济」时代依然被严重低估。
cURL, an open-source project created by Swedish developer Daniel Stenberg in 1996, is a near-ubiquitous piece of internet infrastructure whose core library, libcurl, has been installed over 20 billion times. It handles the protocol details behind network requests across browsers, apps, cars, and countless devices. Despite its critical role, most of its billions of users are entirely unaware of its existence, and Stenberg remains the sole full-time maintainer supported by a rotating community of volunteers—exemplifying the precarious reality of "load-bearing internet people" who keep foundational software running.
The rise of AI coding tools has introduced severe challenges to open-source maintenance. A flood of low-quality, AI-generated code contributions and bug reports has overwhelmed maintainers: cURL shut down its bug bounty programme due to an "explosion of AI slop," while tldraw's creator closed external contributions entirely. Research by economist Miklós Koren argues that as AI agents increasingly become the consumers of open-source packages—downloading software without providing meaningful human engagement—the social and economic incentives that sustain collaborative open-source development are fundamentally eroding, threatening the ecosystem's long-term viability.
The article also examines AI's broader impact on developer education and the software knowledge ecosystem. Stack Overflow's monthly questions have plummeted from over 100,000 to fewer than 1,500, coding education enrolments have sharply declined, and the rich public knowledge commons that once sustained developers is being replaced by private conversations with corporate chatbots. Figures such as Python creator Guido van Rossum and Svelte creator Rich Harris warn that software development is shifting from a permissionless, communal endeavour toward dependence on proprietary AI products owned by a few tech giants—while the unglamorous but essential work of maintenance, as artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles argued decades ago, remains dangerously undervalued in a culture that celebrates creation over stewardship.