Richard Stallman's Remarks on Red Hat, GPL, and the Limits of Generative AI at the GNU 40th Anniversary Event

During the GNU 40th anniversary event in Biel, Switzerland, GNU and FSF founder Richard Stallman delivered a 25‑minute speech in which he revealed his ongoing treatment for follicular lymphoma, described as "slow‑growing and controllable".

Stallman criticized Red Hat's support contracts that forbid customers from redistributing the company's open‑source software, stating that while the practice may not violate the GPL, it is "antisocial" and should be stopped, or the community should pressure Red Hat to change.

He argued that generative AI, including ChatGPT, does not possess genuine understanding; the term "intelligence" should be reserved for systems that can truly comprehend a domain, and calling current AI "intelligent" merely promotes the illusion of meaningful output.

Stallman warned that labeling AI‑generated content as "intelligent" encourages the public to trust nonsense, potentially causing great harm, and emphasized that while true AI may exist, today’s systems merely produce fluent nonsense.

He noted that some AI programs can outperform doctors in diagnosing cancer from images and that other AI systems are highly effective at capturing user attention, which social media platforms exploit to create addictive experiences.

Regarding "ethical" software licenses, Stallman expressed opposition, arguing that they conflict with the first of the four essential freedoms of free software: the freedom to run the program for any purpose.

He concluded his talk by posing a challenge to the community: "How can we get young people interested in free software?" and identified this as one of the community's most pressing difficulties.