AIBRIEF
Linux creator Linus Torvalds says critics of AI coding in the kernel can copy the code or leave, and the Software Freedom Conservancy argues contributors should have self determination over AI tools.
Linux kernel creator and top maintainer Linus Torvalds has publicly told free/open-source software contributors who reject AI-assisted code to fork the project (copy its code and run their own version) or leave, according to Ars Technica's report of a Linux kernel mailing list post this week.
"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, per Ars Technica.
The exchange was triggered by Sashiko, an AI code-review tool that has been auto-filing bug reports with kernel maintainers. Its creators claim the system independently finds roughly 53.6% of the bugs later fixed by human coders, with a false-positive rate "well within [the] 20% range," though those figures are not independently audited.
The Software Freedom Conservancy's LLM-backed generative AI recommendations, cited in the thread, argue the open-source community "should support, not just tolerate, those who outright reject LLM-gen-AI systems" and that "every FOSS contributor deserves self-determination regarding LLM-gen-AI." That framing is what Torvalds is publicly rejecting.
ZDNet and The Register also picked up the story. What remains open: whether any maintainer or downstream project will take Torvalds up on the offer and actually fork the kernel.