Quoting Andrew Kelley

Simon Willison's Blog 04/30/26, 09:24 PM News

llm-detection ai-assisted-coding zig andrew-kelley open-source developer-ethics agentic-coding

Summary

Andrew Kelley, creator of Zig, argues that LLM-assisted contributions are detectable through distinct mistakes and a 'digital smell,' comparing it to smoking in a non-smoking house.

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# A quote from Andrew Kelley Source: [https://simonwillison.net/2026/Apr/30/andrew-kelley/](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Apr/30/andrew-kelley/) 30th April 2026 > It's a common misconception that we can't tell who is using LLM and who is not\. I'm sure we didn't catch 100% of LLM\-assisted PRs over the past few months, but the kind of mistakes humans make are fundamentally different than LLM hallucinations, making them easy to spot\. Furthermore, people who come from the world of agentic coding have a certain*digital smell*that is not obvious to them but is obvious to those who abstain\. It's like when a smoker walks into the room, everybody who doesn't smoke instantly knows it\. I'm not telling you not to smoke, but I am telling you not to smoke in my house\. —[Andrew Kelley](https://lobste.rs/s/ifcyr1/contributor_poker_zig_s_ai_ban#c_cbtxub),Creator of Zig

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