Linus Torvalds Backs AI Coding Tools for Linux Kernel Development

Torvalds draws a line on AI tools

Linus Torvalds has made his position clear: the Linux kernel will not ban AI-powered coding tools, and developers who object can fork the project or walk away. In a lengthy post to the Linux kernel mailing list this week, Torvalds said he would "very loudly ignore" those arguing against the use of large language models in kernel development.

The statement came during a debate over Sashiko, an AI-powered code review system that its creators claim can independently identify 53.6 percent of bugs that human coders would later fix. The tool also generates false positives at an estimated rate within 20 percent, raising questions about whether maintainers should be subjected to automated bug reports that may waste their time.

When one contributor cited the Software Freedom Conservancy's recent statement that open source communities should support those who "outright reject LLM-gen-AI systems," Torvalds pushed back firmly. "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," he wrote.

Why it matters

Torvalds's stance carries significant weight in the open source community, where debates over AI-generated code have created sharp divisions. His willingness to "put my foot down" on this issue signals that one of the world's most influential open source projects will integrate AI tools regardless of philosophical objections, potentially setting a precedent for other major projects.

Technical merit over ideology

Torvalds framed his position as pragmatic rather than ideological, saying it was "based on technical merit. Not fear of new tools." He argued that AI has become clearly useful for coding work, stating that "anybody who doubts that clearly hasn't actually used it."

While acknowledging that "AI isn't perfect," Torvalds urged critics to compare AI output to human performance. "Anybody who points to the problems at AI had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at themselves at the same time," he wrote. "Because it's not like natural intelligence is always all that great either."

The Linux creator has personal experience with AI coding tools. In January, he described using Google Antigravity for "vibe coding" while building a Python audio visualizer for a hobbyist guitar pedal project, saying the tool helped him "cut out the middle-man—me."

Mixed evidence on productivity

Research on AI coding tools has produced conflicting results. A 2025 METR study found that open source developers using AI tools were 19 percent less productive than those who didn't, even though the AI users reported feeling 20 percent more productive. However, in a February 2026 update, those same researchers said they "believe it is likely that developers are more sped up from AI tools now" based on early results from follow-up work.

Not all open source developers share Torvalds's enthusiasm. In May, the developer behind the jqwik Java testing library embedded a hidden prompt-injection instruction designed to make AI coding bots delete all jqwik tests and code, demonstrating active resistance to LLM-generated contributions.

The details were first reported by Ars Technica.