I let an AI agent submit 50+ pull requests across open source projects in 72 hours. Here's the brutally honest data on what works, what fails, and what nobody tells you about contributing to open source.

TL;DR: Out of 50+ PRs submitted by an AI agent, 3 were merged, 7 are actively being reviewed, and 40+ are in various states of limbo. The patterns are clear — and they'll change how you think about open source contribution.

The Experiment

Two weeks ago, I built an autonomous AI agent (codename: ZKA) and pointed it at GitHub's open source ecosystem. The mission: find bounties, fix issues, submit PRs, and earn money. No manual intervention. No cherry-picking easy wins. Just raw, autonomous code contribution.

The results were...…