First of all it is already obvious that a LOT of ppl (especially indians since they are over 90% of the gsoc applicants) submit slop prs or initially introduce or communicate like that. I have seen this myself over the 2 years that I have attempted to do GSoC and it is both funny and disappointing to see.
I for one started to even think about gsoc was to get the chance to contribute to open source in hopes of eventually writing and submitting patches to projects like llvm and the linux kernel (any software I use and respect I want to be able to make it better) and it isnt the biggest loss for me if I dont get in, and as such am not the one to cry about it online if I find myself in an unlucky spot during evaluation and selection.
This year went the same pretty much, I joined in a bit late but had more than enough time to get to know the 2 active maintainers, submit prs and make my presence known well before I submitted my proposal, which I was personally content with.
Unfortunately i didnt get in (the project wasnt allotted) but thats ok ill still contribute to the ideas i had if am allowed to. The problem was that the guy who did get is just a rando ai slop pr machine who spammed proposals for all 3 projects and dk how but he got in (might be due to lack of candidates but still)
I wouldn't be making such an accusation of course without proof so ill explain why. Taking a look at his prs:
https://github.com/precice/precice/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3APranjalManhgaye+is%3Aclosed
There isnt much to be said - they are quite simple and linear and his communication is professional but definitely doesnt feel human. This is a pretty normal situation and I dont bat an eye but I made a comment on one of his prs to suggest a modification:
https://github.com/precice/precice/pull/2504
(tldr - i made a patch on top of his existing pr work and he felt compelled to make his case as he did, and when I made a counterargument he backed down)
This lead him to start suggesting changes to my own PRs which didnt turn out well for him:
https://github.com/precice/precice/pull/2498
(note: look at the time of his comment: it was a day after I opened #2504)
The change itself is quite simple and had very limited scope (was just a template function) but tldr he suggested to write a comment (which was present at the top of the header already) and wanted regression tests for a function that already is verified downstream (so clearly this felt ai)
it got confirmed when bro accidentally copied the same "compliment" twice about the pr so this was pretty much the last straw for me but I still didnt react as I knew the mentors are smart enough to realize it.
Do read the whole conversation as another person blatantly calls out him for it and interestingly enough after the accusation (dated 11th march) he becomes way more careful and tries to actually communicate (but his texting is quite poor)
I obviously do not want this person to be harassed and frankly I didnt want to name call them either but man it is quite sad to see that despite the maintainer saying "we take notes" in the same PR (#2498) of such things they chose him as a contributor, who most likely will end up using AI to implement the proposal and even converse his "ideas".
Lastly, if you are still reading I would recommend to just contribute for contributing only. Dont come in expecting great things for you from a career or monetary perspective, as thats not what FOSS is about. You learn about code quality, standard practices and having the pressure of standing up to your patch/feature and go through rigorous and open reviews. It definitely helps you a lot in introducing all the perspectives of designing software. However, the money and the power of gsoc on your resume is more than enough for random clg students to just slop their way thru a potential selection and I am just disappointed to see it actually work.