Slop study

As part of a broader series of projects to understand the impacts of AI on Open Source Software developer communities, we seek to interview open source maintainers.

To participate, please fill out our Screener Survey!

Study Information Sheet

AI Slop Cybersecurity Reports

You are invited to participate in a research study seeking to understand the impacts of AI on open source projects, with a particular interest in fabricated cybersecurity reports, sometimes called ‘AI slop’. Specifically, we seek to understand how communities are responding, the rules that they are developing, and the kinds of solutions that seem to be working as intended.

Eligibility to Participate

Participants must be adults (i.e., at least 18 years old if they are from the United States and/or above the age of majority in their locale if they are not), be able to conduct an interview in English, be familiar with online communities on at least one of the platforms we are studying, and be willing to participate in a 45-60 minute interview recorded over audio or video communication.

Procedures for the Study

If you agree to be in the study, you will first complete a short questionnaire asking about your familiarity and engagement with open source. You will then participate in an interview conducted remotely by voice or video using Jitsi, Zoom, or a platform of your choice. This interview will include questions about your experience with handing off software.

You will be asked about your knowledge of open source, AI, and cybersecurity. We expect that most interviews will last about 45 minutes. These interviews will be recorded and then transcribed so that our research team can have a record of what you have said. We will delete the recordings themselves once the interviews are fully transcribed. We will edit out any identifiers from these transcripts so that all retained records are anonymous.

Voluntary Participation and Withdrawal

Taking part in this study is voluntary. You may choose not to take part or may leave the study at any time. For example, you may decline to complete the survey, cancel the interview before it begins or choose to end the interview at any point. Leaving the study will not result in any penalty or loss of benefits to which you are entitled. Your decision of whether or not to participate in the study will not affect your current or future relations with the University of Washington.

Payment for Participation

You may be compensated with a $30 Amazon gift card. Amazon gift cards can only be used in the country where they were purchased and they can only be purchased on amazon.com’s USA website or one of Amazon’s international sites (Australia, Brazil, Canada, People’s Republic of China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom). If you want to receive the gift card, we must collect your name, email address, and the country where you intend to use the gift card, in order to comply with financial requirements, via a Google Form.

Confidentiality

We will endeavor to keep your personal information confidential. However, we cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality. Your personal information may be disclosed if required by law. Your identifying information including your email address and audio/video recording of our conversion will be held in confidence until the reports resulting from the study are published, after which they will be deleted.

Our university requires that if you opt to receive any payment gift card, we will need to collect your name and email address and retain this information for a period of 5-6 years. We will store this information in an encrypted file separate from the rest of the information we collect and will not share this information except in the case of a financial audit. If you do not wish to receive compensation, we will not collect your name or maintain any identifiers (like your email) after the study is concluded.

Questions or Problems

If you have questions, concerns, or complaints about the study or this information sheet contact the Primary Investigator Kaylea Champion at kaylea@uw.edu

If you have questions about your rights as a research subject or if you think the research has hurt you, you may contact the UW Human Subjects Division at 206-543-0098 or hsdinfo@uw.edu.

This study has been approved by the University of Washington Human Subjects Division as STUDY00025982.