Linus Torvalds Says He Enjoys AI as a Tool, Even as Open-Source Developers Push Back

Torvalds said, "I actually really like using AI." He added, "I think that you need to be very careful using AI when you're doing something real and important." The remarks came as many open-source developers remain skeptical of AI; ZDNet noted that System76 recently banned AI-generated content from its COSMIC desktop.

Torvalds said his attitude had changed. "I used to think it was just not very good -- but now I'm at the point where I actually really like using AI." He described himself as a maintainer rather than a frequent kernel programmer. "I don't do a lot of kernel programming. I'm a maintainer. The Linux kernel is a project where other people do the real work, and I act as the collection point." He said he still enjoys programming immensely and finds AI makes it more enjoyable when treated as a tool.

He traced part of his perspective to when he began programming. "I started programming in 1981 or so, and back then computers were much simpler, and you could understand what they were doing, and also the programs you compared your own programs to were much simpler." Today, he said, "The bar in software engineering has grown so high that it's hard to see your own small efforts as worth anything, because you're used to all these polished, professional programs."

Torvalds defended vibe coding, a practice often mocked by developers. "A lot of people make fun of vibe coding, but I think it's a wonderful way to find joy in programming. It makes you feel like you're doing something relevant. It allows you, as a new programmer, to do things that you would otherwise have a really hard time with."

He described AI as a gateway drug for programming, citing his own toy project, a guitar pedal. He said he knew what he was doing and had written a user interface in C that ran on a microcontroller with a small screen. "This is just stupid. It looks like something from the '80s; I wanted it to look like something from this century. But I don't do Java. I do kernels." He said he used AI to do things he is bad at. After seeing YouTube videos, he gave AI a prompt. "It did it, and it was horrendous." He then told it he had already done the work in C the right way, though it was ugly.

Torvalds acknowledged that AI tools are helping identify security vulnerabilities and improve the Linux kernel, but he said they also overwhelm maintainers with questionable bug reports and superficial fixes. He called some submissions "mindless band-aid kind of patches."

Despite AI's growing influence, Torvalds said Linux's success comes from steady, incremental development rather than sweeping changes. "I'm a big believer in the whole incremental small changes that, over time, turn into big features," he said. The development goal remains, in his words, "incremental improvement and steady progress all the time."