LibreOffice breaks download records after declaring it has no AI features

LibreOffice 在宣布不含 AI 功能后打破下载纪录

LibreOffice 26.8, released on August 26th, became the software’s most popular update. LibreOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft Office that’s been around for nearly two decades. In one week, the installer was downloaded more than 1 million times — not counting updates via Linux distribution repositories. 8 月 26 日发布的 LibreOffice 26.8 成为了该软件历史上最受欢迎的更新版本。LibreOffice 是一款已存在近二十年的 Microsoft Office 免费替代品。在短短一周内，其安装包下载量就超过了 100 万次——这还不包括通过 Linux 发行版仓库进行的更新。

Someone might say the improvements to the writing system and typography are a hit among NGOs, government agencies, and offices that use LibreOffice. I’m putting my money on a “non-feature,” though: the statement that LibreOffice doesn’t come with generative AI features due to the technology’s (lack of) privacy. 有人可能会说，书写系统和排版功能的改进受到了非政府组织、政府机构以及使用 LibreOffice 的办公场所的欢迎。但我认为，真正的原因在于一个“非功能”特性：即 LibreOffice 声明由于生成式 AI 技术存在隐私（缺失）问题，因此不包含此类功能。

A day after celebrating the download record and the wide media coverage, The Document Foundation (TDF), which manages the software, spelled out its position in a post titled “Yes, no AI is now a feature”. The article, signed by Italo Vignoli, says TDF “does not reject artificial intelligence out of hand,” but that the technology doesn’t yet meet an exhaustive list of principles to be included by default. 在庆祝下载纪录和获得广泛媒体报道的一天后，负责管理该软件的文件基金会（TDF）在一篇题为《是的，没有 AI 现在也是一种功能》的文章中阐明了其立场。该文章由 Italo Vignoli 署名，文中表示 TDF“并非直接拒绝人工智能”，但该技术目前尚未满足被默认集成所需的一系列详尽原则。

Those principles are: User-controlled execution. No content may leave the computer without authorization. No telemetry of any kind. No dependency on a single vendor. No compromises on [file] format. Entirely optional. For now, TDF recommends community plugins to integrate AI into LibreOffice. 这些原则包括：用户控制执行；未经授权，任何内容不得离开计算机；不进行任何形式的遥测；不依赖单一供应商；不对[文件]格式做出妥协；完全可选。目前，TDF 建议通过社区插件将 AI 集成到 LibreOffice 中。

TDF’s distinctive stance “has almost nothing to do with the technology,” the article continues, before taking a jab at rivals that dove headfirst into AI. For the foundation, “an AI assistant justifies a price increase and strengthens the case for keeping all documents within its own infrastructure,” referring to companies that rely on selling subscriptions. 文章继续写道，TDF 这种独特的立场“与技术本身几乎没有关系”，并顺带讽刺了那些一头扎进 AI 领域的竞争对手。对于基金会而言，“AI 助手成为了涨价的理由，并加强了将所有文档保留在自身基础设施内的必要性”，这显然是指那些依赖销售订阅服务的公司。

The Document Foundation’s detailed explanation may disappoint anyone who read the announcement at the LibreOffice 26.8 launch as an anti-AI manifesto. Whatever the reasons, the LibreOffice 26.8 case answers a question I and others have had since 2023: if the whole market now offers AI baked in software of every kind, is there really no room for AI-free alternatives to stand out? Apparently, there is. 文件基金会的详细解释可能会让那些将 LibreOffice 26.8 发布公告解读为“反 AI 宣言”的人感到失望。无论原因如何，LibreOffice 26.8 的案例回答了我和其他人自 2023 年以来一直存在的一个问题：如果整个市场现在都在各类软件中内置了 AI，那么“无 AI”的替代品是否真的没有脱颖而出的空间？显然，答案是肯定的。