Publishing Open Source Learning Notes Safely | Generated by AI
Yes, in general it’s perfectly fine—but with some important nuances you’ll want to keep in mind:
1. Using Open Source from Big Tech or Banks
If a company (Google, Meta, Microsoft, HSBC, etc.) has released technology as open source under a recognized license (Apache 2.0, MIT, GPL, etc.), then anyone is free to use, modify, and publish derived works, provided you comply with the license. That includes writing about it, making tutorials, and publishing your own projects on GitHub. Open source by definition is meant to be shared and built upon.
2. Asking AI Questions
Using AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) to learn and clarify concepts about those open source technologies is also completely fine. You’re not leaking company secrets by asking general or technical questions about tools that are already publicly available. AI systems are designed for this sort of Q\&A.
3. Publishing Answers to GitHub
You can absolutely publish your AI-generated explanations, summaries, or tutorials on GitHub. Many people do this—blog posts, educational repos, and annotated guides. As long as:
- You’re not copying internal company docs, confidential material, or proprietary code.
- You respect the open source license terms (e.g., attribution if required).
- You clearly present it as your own learning notes or open knowledge contribution.
4. Risks to Avoid
- Confidential work context: If you’re working at a bank or big tech and discussing internal systems or non-public code, that must not go into AI prompts or public GitHub repos. Stick strictly to what’s already open source.
- Attribution: If you’re quoting official docs, give credit or link back.
- Compliance: Some employers have policies on what employees may publish—even if it’s open source. Best practice is to publish from a personal account with a disclaimer like “opinions are my own.”
✅ Safe Example Studying Apache Kafka (open source from LinkedIn/Confluent), asking AI “explain Kafka exactly-once semantics,” then uploading your learning notes and example code to GitHub.
❌ Risky Example Copying HSBC’s internal Kafka deployment docs, asking AI to optimize them, then uploading that to GitHub.
So the short answer: Yes, it’s fine—and actually encouraged in the open source ecosystem—provided you stick to open source content and avoid leaking anything proprietary.
Do you want me to draft you a short disclaimer template you can put in your GitHub repos, so it’s crystal clear you’re only sharing open source learning notes?