Torvalds said it’s better to find a controlled way of dealing with AI contributions than trying to fight it.
Apparently that’s considered scandalous (by people only reading headlines).
There are other questions around AI (like what the economy of it will
actually look like in the end), but “is it useful” is no longer one of
those questions. Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn’t actually used
it.
Yes, it can also be a somewhat painful tool, both for maintainer
workloads and just from a “it keeps finding embarrassing bugs”
standpoint.
But the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing “La La
La, I can’t hear you” at the top of your voice like some people seem
to do.
The solution is to make sure those LLM tools help maintainers
instead of just causing them pain. There’s no question on that side.
We’re not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore
people who try to argue against other people from using it.
And no, AI isn’t perfect. But Christ, anybody who points to the
problems at AI had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at
themselves at the same time.
Because it’s not like natural intelligence is always all that great either.
Because it should be scandalous. Give one inch to the corpos, they will take a mile. Give them “rational adaptation”, they will demand a fully vibe-coded kernel.
On a systemic level, yes. On an individual “I have a crazy big software project to lead”, no.
Analogy, a responsible parent makes their kids wear a helmet. Even though car-centric infrastructure is the real problem. The bicycle itself is not dangerous. The car is.
So, on a systemic level we should fix the root cause. We should further regulate cars and make the infrastructure less car-centric. On an individual level a kid should still wear a helmet.
Featured in this show:
The kid: the kernel
The parent: Torvalds
The helmet: Guidance and regulations how to deal with AI
The car: AI
Systems are made up by individuals. Individuals bending over to AI, especially big name projects like Linux, will just legitimize it. Get ready for a few extra years of AI slop!
Torvalds said it’s better to find a controlled way of dealing with AI contributions than trying to fight it.
Apparently that’s considered scandalous (by people only reading headlines).
Because it should be scandalous. Give one inch to the corpos, they will take a mile. Give them “rational adaptation”, they will demand a fully vibe-coded kernel.
On a systemic level, yes. On an individual “I have a crazy big software project to lead”, no.
Analogy, a responsible parent makes their kids wear a helmet. Even though car-centric infrastructure is the real problem. The bicycle itself is not dangerous. The car is.
So, on a systemic level we should fix the root cause. We should further regulate cars and make the infrastructure less car-centric. On an individual level a kid should still wear a helmet.
Featured in this show: The kid: the kernel The parent: Torvalds The helmet: Guidance and regulations how to deal with AI The car: AI
Real big brain centrist energy here.
Systems are made up by individuals. Individuals bending over to AI, especially big name projects like Linux, will just legitimize it. Get ready for a few extra years of AI slop!