Linux kernel developers will no longer need to disclose the use of AI in development, a major change for the biggest open source project in the world.
AI has become an increasingly divisive topic in the open source community, with various projects and Linux distributions taking different approaches. Some have opted to allow AI contributions, while others have required disclosure, and still others have banned such contributions altogether.
As the creator of Linux and leader of its development, Linus Torvalds has taken a decidedly pragmatic approach, saying that AI is a tool like any other. For a short time, kernel contributors were expected to flag their use of this tool by using the “Assisted-by” tag. Kernel maintainers recently lifted that restriction, with Torvalds using the opportunity to explain his view.
I don’t understand this whole idiotic concept of “don’t use AI for X”.
Here’s a new rule just for you: don’t use compilers for any of your
kernel submissions.
Because if you can’t show that you really understand what the machine
is actually doing by writing your code in assembler, then I don’t want
to see your code contribution. You clearly aren’t competent if you
can’t write it that way.
And btw, you had better not use an editor to write that commit message either.
Because I need you to show me that you can actually write a good
commit message without using tools that make it easy to backspace and
hide the mistakes you made while typing.
Ok?
Because otherwise those tool-assisted commits of yours clearly aren’t
showing that you know what you are doing.
Do you not see how UTTERLY STUPID those kinds of rules would be?
So no. We’re not going to make stupid rules that say “you can’t use
tools for X”.
Torvalds then went on to explain what he expected of kernel contributors and maintainers, regardless of the tools they use.
The kind of expectations I have is that people do their best and I
expect people to understand what they are doing.
But that understanding has very little to do with what tools they use.
And quite honestly, in my experience, the people I respect and call
intelligent are not the ones that shy away from using new and
interesting tools.
Torvalds carries a tremendous amount of weight in the open source community, and the development community at large. His stand also puts downstream projects and Linux distros that are anti-AI in a unique position. While they may ban AI contributions to their own projects, they will not be able to completely eliminate them as long as the base system they rely on allows such contributions.