Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
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@nixCraft Is Generative AI a tool? Yes
Is it useful? Maybe for some things like finding bugs.
Is it like any other tool? Clearly not. It is built on top of massive theft and extreme resource waste. It's increasing the pricing of consumer electronics to absurd levels. And it's driving the economy and climate to collapse.
I am not surprised Linus doesn't care about the ethics. He picked GPL license for the kernel almost by chance, not because he thought about the ethics behind it.@doragasu @nixCraft recommend this piece as well
https://www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05/just-a-tool.html -
@nixCraft Well, he is right. It is just a tool.
A contentious, environment-wracking, intellectual-property-ignoring, potentially global-economic-market-racking tool; but still just a tool.
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Linux foundation members are listed companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others. So I am not surprised that he is backing up his employer who pays his salary.
Other day Star Wars creators George Lucas recently endorsed AI in filmmaking, SAYING it is the "future" of cinema and comparing the rejection of AI to preferring a horse and buggy over a car. He argued that AI makes the creative process easier and that embracing progress is inevitable.
@nixCraft Lucas's films are pretty formulaic anyway. No surprise he likes AI.
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
@nixCraft I dislike it as well, on many levels, but there are several tipping points this year (2026) IMHO that can't be hand waved off. Think of both the rise in bug submission reports, and record number of patches for Windows etc also how it has sped up discovery to exploit window for black hats https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/07/microsoft-patches-a-record-570-security-flaws/
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@nixCraft I dislike it as well, on many levels, but there are several tipping points this year (2026) IMHO that can't be hand waved off. Think of both the rise in bug submission reports, and record number of patches for Windows etc also how it has sped up discovery to exploit window for black hats https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/07/microsoft-patches-a-record-570-security-flaws/
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
@nixCraft Linus is just a tool and he's used wrong.
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
@nixCraft Perhaps it's time to switch to HURD
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
@nixCraft oh no someone is not my idea of perfect! Oh me, oh my, oh Wi-Fi!
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
@nixCraft BSD it is, I guess.
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Linux foundation members are listed companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others. So I am not surprised that he is backing up his employer who pays his salary.
Other day Star Wars creators George Lucas recently endorsed AI in filmmaking, SAYING it is the "future" of cinema and comparing the rejection of AI to preferring a horse and buggy over a car. He argued that AI makes the creative process easier and that embracing progress is inevitable.
@nixCraft Lucas is as morally bankrupt as any other billionaire. I'll move forward with the same contempt for him that I have for everyone who generates "films" this way.
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I wonder how practical it is to maintain a fork of Linux without any AI generated code.
Examples are there to see. Debian vs Devuan is just systemd. Then expand it to the scope of kernel.org.
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Linux foundation members are listed companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others. So I am not surprised that he is backing up his employer who pays his salary.
Other day Star Wars creators George Lucas recently endorsed AI in filmmaking, SAYING it is the "future" of cinema and comparing the rejection of AI to preferring a horse and buggy over a car. He argued that AI makes the creative process easier and that embracing progress is inevitable.
@nixCraft Sure, progress 'within a sustainable range'. But the .01% wealthiest #TechBros are putting the majority of eventual benefits, out of reach NOW, while we face more and more insurmountable crises just striving to survive.
The power abusers know this, and are Capitalizing on the destabilizations, with even further Divide and Conquer Strategies, while their progeny have luxury bunkers backing them up.
Supplant them with ethical #scientists.
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
@nixCraft Linus Torvalds is an asshole.
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
And no, AI isn't perfect. But Christ, anybody who points to the problems [with] 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. [...] In the kernel community we do open source because it results in better technology, not because of religious reasons. And so we make decisions primarily based on technical merit.
Man, it's always the folk making proclamations like these who are the most abjectly bereft of self-awareness.
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Linux foundation members are listed companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others. So I am not surprised that he is backing up his employer who pays his salary.
Other day Star Wars creators George Lucas recently endorsed AI in filmmaking, SAYING it is the "future" of cinema and comparing the rejection of AI to preferring a horse and buggy over a car. He argued that AI makes the creative process easier and that embracing progress is inevitable.
@nixCraft I don't quite understand. I don't know all the context, but I've read what Linus wrote and I think I agree. "AI is just a tool" or "you submit it you own it" (don't remember the exact words), I think that's right. Of course you should be responsible for the code you push, regardless of how you got there. Does he allow slop now? There is nothing suggesting that. Many teams struggle with the same now. AI can help. And we shouldn't allow slop. But it's not one or the other.
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Examples are there to see. Debian vs Devuan is just systemd. Then expand it to the scope of kernel.org.
I use Artix Linux which is like Devuan but for Arch users
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Linus Torvalds: “I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.”
@nixCraft Linus as based as usual, haters gonna hate and cry...
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@thejessiekirk @nixCraft They have no org-wide policy, the projects are supposed to handle it themselves. Krita bans GenAI, while other projects like KDE Connect already started integrating slop code.
I was really disappointed to find out. There is one large forum thread in the KDE forum about it, but nothing more.
