Linus Torvalds Advocates for AI in Programming, Cautions on Kernel Use

At the Open Source Summit Europe in Prague, Linux creator Linus Torvalds expressed a favorable view of artificial intelligence in coding, contrasting with the skepticism held by some open-source communities. While companies like System76 have banned AI-generated content from their COSMIC desktop environment, Torvalds told interviewer Dirk Hohndel that he “actually really likes using AI,” provided it is applied responsibly.

Torvalds, who serves as a maintainer rather than an active kernel programmer, argued that AI is particularly valuable for newcomers to the field. He recalled beginning his programming journey in 1981, when software was simpler and easier to comprehend. Today, he noted, the high standards of professional software can discourage beginners. He described what some critics call “vibe coding” as a positive gateway, allowing new developers to create functional projects and feel relevant, even if they lack deep expertise.

Illustrating his own use of the technology, Torvalds shared his experience building a user interface for a guitar pedal project. Despite being a C kernel expert, he used AI to handle Java tasks he found difficult. Although the initial AI output was poor, he was able to rewrite it correctly, reinforcing his belief that AI can handle tasks outside a developer’s primary skill set.

However, Torvalds drew a sharp distinction between using AI for hobby projects and integrating it into the Linux kernel. He warned that the volume of AI-generated patches and bug reports can place undue stress on maintainers. He cited the Sashiko system, an agentic code review tool whose findings are now posted to the Linux Kernel Mailing List. While some subsystem maintainers expect patches to undergo AI review, Torvalds highlighted that AI can also produce convincing but fabricated bug reports or “mindless band-aid” patches that address symptoms rather than root causes.

He noted that three-quarters of the discussion at the recent Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit focused on making AI generation less exhausting and more useful, emphasizing that the bottleneck is no longer receiving patches but filtering valuable work.

Reflecting on Linux’s 35th anniversary, Torvalds also recounted the evolution of the project’s development infrastructure. In its early days, he manually distributed source code via tarballs. The introduction of BitKeeper provided a necessary distributed version control system, though a licensing dispute in 2005 led Torvalds to create Git. He developed the first working version in just 11 days, eventually handing over maintenance after six months. Today, Git is used by nearly 97% of professional developers, a level of adoption Torvalds said he never intended.

Torvalds also highlighted the shift in Linux’s release cycle from long, infrequent updates to a rapid, incremental model lasting nine to ten weeks. He remains a proponent of steady, small improvements over dramatic feature launches, asserting that this stable process continues to drive the operating system’s success despite the changing role of AI.