Socket reported that ESLint, a widely used JavaScript code checker, has ended its paid contributor program. Creator Nicholas C. Zakas announced the change on November 13, effective immediately. The program began in 2022 and paid people outside the core team for useful work. Socket says payouts reached $51,180 through 2025. Zakas said cost was not the reason.
Zakas said AI-written issues and pull requests (proposed code changes) kept growing, and accusations of hidden AI use made the program increasingly hard to administer. ESLint asked contributors to disclose AI help, but not everyone did, and maintainers struggled to tell human work from AI work. Outsiders he called "AI monitors" publicly accused some contributors. Socket does not say how many were accused, or whether any accusation was proven.
A polished, well-tested patch used to suggest that its author understood the code. Socket quotes Rust contributor Jynn Nelson saying AI has made that signal less reliable. At tldraw, founder Steve Ruiz said his AI tool sometimes invented bugs from vague notes, and contributors' AI tools then built patches for them. Teams that depend on open source could list those projects, check each one's contribution and AI rules, and ask whether they support maintainers directly.