Linus Torvalds Backs AI Tools for Linux Kernel Development, Tells Critics to 'Fork It'

According to a post on the Linux kernel mailing list this week, Linus Torvalds, the Linux kernel creator and top maintainer, said he is willing to support AI-powered coding tools in the project. "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," Torvalds wrote.

The statement addressed concerns about Sashiko, an AI-powered code review system that can independently identify bugs but also generates false positives at roughly a 20% rate. Torvalds rejected calls from those demanding open source projects reject all LLM-generated code, stating: "We're not forcing anybody to use LLM tools, but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it."