Open source communities depend on a steady influx of newcomers who ask questions, seek help, and build relationships. Future heroes have to start somewhere as newbies. But across the ecosystem, those early engagement signals are dropping—sometimes sharply. Generative AI is changing how people learn, troubleshoot, and participate.
This talk synthesizes new research and real-world data to explore how AI is reshaping contributor pipelines—and what open source projects can do to adapt before downstream participation suffers.