In the realm of open-source software, a debate over innovation, borrowing, and commercialization is unfolding. Recently, PearAI, an AI programming tool self-proclaimed as the "open-source version of Cursor," announced it had secured $500,000 (approximately 3.5 million RMB) in funding from YCombinator, sparking widespread attention and discussion within the tech community.

This code editor, based on VSCode and Continue, has its founder Pan admitting that the project indeed "borrowed" from other open-source projects. However, Pan also claims that the product's performance surpasses Copilot and is more open-source than Cursor. Pan mentioned that 49% of PearAI's code comes from the open-source community and proudly stated that the project has over 100 contributors, including those from VSCode and Continue projects.

However, these statements have sparked skepticism among netizens. The focus of the debate is not whether the "borrowing" behavior is acknowledged but whether these 100-plus contributors are truly independent of the forked VSCode and Continue projects. Some believe that PearAI may be leveraging the halo of these projects to enhance its own value.

In response to the质疑, Pan remained calm, emphasizing that he never considered contributors to upstream projects as contributors to PearAI. To prove the project had genuine contributors, he released a list of developers involved in PearAI's development. After some debate, some skeptics changed their views, finding Pan's explanations reasonable, but also advised him to be more cautious in his expressions to avoid misunderstandings.

This controversy has prompted us to reflect on the boundaries between innovation and borrowing in the open-source world. In open-source communities, sharing and reusing code is common, but how to maintain innovation while borrowing from others' achievements, and how to appropriately showcase project value during commercialization, are challenges faced by every open-source project.

The case of PearAI also exposes some issues in tech entrepreneurship. Under the pressure of rapid development and fundraising, some entrepreneurs may exaggerate the uniqueness and contributions of their projects. This not only can lead to moral controversies but also may affect the project's long-term development and reputation.

It is noteworthy that the two founders of PearAI are influential Chinese-American YouTube bloggers with extensive technical backgrounds and a large following. Pan has worked at Meta and Tesla, while the other founder, Ang, holds a master's degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Such backgrounds undoubtedly add considerable attention to the project but also bring higher expectations and stricter scrutiny.

Reference: https://x.com/CodeFryingPan/status/1840464744626675719

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