Linus Torvalds: Stop making an issue out of AI slop in kernel docs – you're not changing anybody's mind

Today, it is hard to escape LLM bots and the endless slop they emit, but the Linux kernel might be largely safe … for now.

Linus Torvalds has spoken up on the contentious topic of LLM-assisted software development. Despite his previous guardedly positive stance, for now, he seems to have come out strongly against it in the context he cares about the most – developing code for the Linux kernel. But he also doesn't want the documentation to become a political battlefield over this point.

He was responding to a message from Oracle-affiliated kernel developer Lorenzo Stokes, which seems to us to be guardedly anti-LLM: "Thinking LLMs are 'just another tool' is to say effectively that the kernel is immune from this. Which seems to me a silly position."

Torvalds replied:

No. Your position is the silly one.

There is zero point in talking about AI slop. That's just plain ...