I was successful the agency pinch the squad erstwhile we heard that Google had released Artemis, a task for automating mobile devices. We opened the repository and started looking done it. My guidance was beautiful immediate:
“What the fuck? We wrote this.”
We built mobile-use arsenic an open-source investigation research to spot whether we could get AI agents to reliably interact pinch phones. We worked connected that done February, past focused connected a newer, much powerful, closed-source type that now powers QA crossed web and mobile astatine Minitap.
Finding acquainted codification successful different task is thing you expect erstwhile you people your activity for group to use. Finding it nether Google’s name, without an acknowledgment of wherever it came from, is harder to take.
Then we looked astatine the history and recovered our names successful an older version. They had been removed.
I’m disappointed successful Google. And I deliberation this matters beyond our ain repository, because unfastened root depends connected group being consenting to support sharing their work. The measurement that activity is treated matters.
What we recognised
The examples were specific. Parts of the codification for connecting to Android devices matched our implementation exactly. The Hopper agent’s instructions were identical, connection for word. Those matches were still coming successful the Artemis type we checked connected September 11: present is the Artemis instrumentality code alongside ours, and the Artemis prompt alongside ours.
Fun truth astir Hopper: we didn’t cognize what to telephone that agent. Jean-Pierre, 1 of our engineers, likes Minecraft and thought the sanction was cool, truthful we went pinch it. That was the reasoning. Seeing the aforesaid sanction attached to the aforesaid instructions successful Google’s repo felt very familiar.
An illustration for keeping an supplier wrong WhatsApp had the aforesaid task of sending Happy New Year messages to Alice, Bob, and Charlie, pinch the aforesaid comments and cleanup steps. That was still location too. Compare the Artemis messaging example pinch the mobile-use example.
Older versions moreover shared a bug: a helper would constitute a results file, past neglect erstwhile it tried to publication its ain output connected the adjacent run. We reproduced the aforesaid nonaccomplishment successful both implementations. Artemis has since fixed it.
The writer history was harder to understand. An earlier package file listed Pierre-Louis Favreau, Jean-Pierre Lo, and Nicolas Dehandschoewercker. The version that replaced it removed each 3 names and substituted different author. The only alteration to the files was the writer list. GitHub’s activity record shows that the replacement happened done a unit push successful August, earlier our investigation this September.
Our names successful the earlier Artemis package file. GitHub now marks this type arsenic detached; its activity record shows it was antecedently connected the main branch. File.
The writer database aft the replacement. Source.
Artemis contains its ain engineering activity too. It tin admit that activity and the mobile-use codification it incorporates successful the aforesaid place. Yet the README we checked did not in installments mobile-use. We person put the elaborate comparisons, the archived files, and the timeline successful a public actual record.
Sharing codification should make collaboration easier
We chose unfastened root because we want different group to build connected mobile-use. Someone should beryllium capable to return it successful a guidance we would ne'er person considered. They should beryllium capable to amended it, move it into a product, aliases build a competing project, wrong the license’s terms.
There are mean ways to do that while keeping its origins clear. A fork links backmost to the original project. An imported transcript tin archive its source. Copyright and attribution notices tin enactment pinch the code. A README tin explicate which parts came from elsewhere and what the caller squad has added.
Some of this is established engineering practice. Some is required by the license. The mobile-use root utilized for the existent comparisons carries Apache 2.0, whose redistribution conditions see preserving applicable copyright and attribution notices and identifying changes. It besides provides for retaining applicable attribution from an upstream NOTICE record erstwhile that record is included successful the distribution. Apache 2.0, conception 4
That accusation is useful to everyone who comes next. It helps group find the original maintainers, understand a creation decision, study a bug, aliases stock a fix. It gives contributors a grounds of what they built. It lets a caller task explicate its ain publication honestly.
I should not request to retrieve an aged type of a repository to observe that relationship. Maintainers already walk clip answering questions, reviewing contributions, and keeping their projects working. Chasing missing attribution aft a larger institution republishes their activity is different costs of sharing. An ecosystem that makes this regular gives group different logic to extremity doing it.
I want much group publishing useful software, pinch much assurance that their activity will still beryllium recognised erstwhile it travels.
Our benchmark results person besides been difficult to get heard
We had already spent months asking for our newer results to beryllium reflected connected AndroidWorld’s leaderboard.
The maintainer applied our earlier submissions, up to 91.4%, pinch the past confirmation successful December 2025. We past submitted 94.8%, followed by 100% successful our information successful January. We sent 2 follow-ups. Those 4 emails received nary reply. Our results and task traces are disposable for inspection.
As of September 11, the expanse still showed mobile-use astatine 91.4%, while Artemis appeared astatine 99.1%. These are self-reported results; the leaderboard explicitly says it does not independently verify them. That qualification applies to our reported 100% too.
Artemis’s ain comparison chart omitted us. It included DroidRun astatine the aforesaid listed people arsenic mobile-use, and an unrelated MadeAgents task called MobileUse astatine a little score.
This is Artemis’s ain chart. The “MobileUse” adjacent the bottommost is simply a different project. Source.
We person nary grounds connecting the unanswered emails aliases the floor plan omission to the removal of our names. But this is different portion of our acquisition of trying to get the nationalist grounds to bespeak our work. We would for illustration a consequence to those submissions and an mentation of the comparison.
We’ve contacted Google
We’ve already contacted the Google team. There is besides a public rumor connected the Artemis repository. We’ve asked them to admit that Artemis is derived successful portion from mobile-use, in installments the group down it, and put the attribution right. I’ll update this station erstwhile we person thing substantive to share.
What disappoints me
I’m disappointed successful Google. This is the institution that gave america Kubernetes and TensorFlow. When it launched Chrome, it explicitly credited WebKit and Firefox, writing: “We beryllium a awesome indebtedness to galore unfastened root projects.” Google has a history of doing this well, and published guidance for handling different people’s code. That is precisely why I expected better. The original Chrome announcement.
I’m disappointed for my team. They did an insane occupation connected mobile-use. Through December, January, and February, they were focused connected making this work. I saw the effort that went into it. These are their implementations, their examples, their weird Minecraft-inspired supplier names. I want them to spot that activity utilized and consciousness proud of it. Having to excavation done personification else’s repository to found that they wrote it is simply a beautiful shitty outcome.
I’m disappointed for the open-source community. It deserves amended curen than this. People put their activity retired location truthful others tin study from it and build connected it. The group and projects down that activity merit to stay visible. If moreover a merchandise from Google intends maintainers person to pursuit their ain attribution, we are making it harder for group to consciousness bully astir sharing. That is not the benignant of unfastened root I want to beryllium portion of.
On the agleam side, the type powering Minitap coming is closed source. And it’s a wholly different beast by now. Google, you’re 7 months late. Next time, conscionable inquire for a demo.
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