AI in an app isn't the same as AI in the kernel

July 21, 2026

So when someone says “AI writes code,” you have to ask: code for what context? Because autocompleting an interface function isn't the same as touching the kernel. And Torvalds seems to be making exactly that distinction. On the one hand, he has criticized useless or trivial contributions, especially when they arrive late in a version's development cycle. In May 2026, he complained about pull requests that bloated a release candidate with minor changes, some driven by AI tools. That doesn't help stability when

So when someone says “AI writes code,” you have to ask: code for what context? Because autocompleting an interface function isn’t the same as touching the kernel. And Torvalds seems to be making exactly that distinction. On the one hand, he has criticized useless or trivial contributions, especially when they arrive late in a version’s development cycle. In May 2026, he complained about pull requests that bloated a release candidate with minor changes, some driven by AI tools. That doesn’t help stability.

Full episode: https://youtu.be/Z76yv4KkLms

🤖 AI-generated content: the script, voices, and images in this episode were produced using artificial intelligence tools.

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