Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off
Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off
https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/07/15/linus-torvalds-tells-ai-haters-to-fork-off/5271894
Publish Date: 2026-07-15 12:54:00
Source Domain: www.theregister.com
ai and ml
Linux supremo says contributors opposed to AI use can ‘just walk away’
Chief penguinista Linus Torvalds has declared that Linux is not an “anti-AI” project, telling contributors who object they can either walk away or fork the kernel.
On lore.kernel.org, the archive for Linux kernel mailing lists, reformed potty mouth Linus was responding to a discussion about some negative sentiments toward AI.
It is one area where Torvalds said he was willing to “absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer … 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.”
Ever the pragmatist, Torvalds described AI as a tool, “just like other tools we use. And it’s clearly a useful one. It may not have been that ‘clearly’ even just a year ago, but it’s no longer in question today.
“Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn’t actually used it.”
In October 2024, the Linux kingpin branded 90 percent of AI as marketing hype, saying he hated the hoopla generated by the tech industry. He said at the time: “I really don’t want to go there, so my approach to AI right now is I will basically ignore it.”
He predicted things would change in five years, though he has softened his stance in 21 months.
AI can be a “somewhat painful tool, both for maintainer workloads and just from an ‘it keeps finding embarrassing bugs’ standpoint,” Torvalds conceded this week. “But the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing ‘La La La, I can’t hear you’ at the top of your voice like some people seem to do.”
The solution, he said, is to make sure LLM tools help maintainers rather than cause them pain. “We’re not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it.”
The kernel project continues to be…
