this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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167
Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off: Linux supremo says contributors opposed to AI use can 'just walk away' (lore.kernel.org)
submitted 1 week ago by beep@piefed.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1264750/linus-torvalds-tells-ai-haters-to-fork-off-linux-supremo-says-contributors-opposed-to-ai

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[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 170 points 1 week ago (10 children)

I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm 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. AI is a tool, just like other tools we use. And it's clearly a useful one.

I think broadly speaking what he says is reasonable. If you don't want to use AI, then don't, but I think it can be used somewhat responsibly.

I have all sorts of issues with AI tooling:

  • the centralization of power
  • the load it adds on maintainers because of the amount of slop bad developers (and non-devs) produce with it
  • the environmental impacts of using larger models
  • the data centers causing health risks
  • the impact on the PC industry
  • the degeneration of skills and knowledge.

That said, it's a tool, and can be used to amplify good work too.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

It's really weird for Linus to reference "the open source thing" while encouraging people to use legally dubious closed-source software with legally dubious output

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This seems to be his view:

In the kernel community we do open source because it results in better technology, not because of religious reasons.

He doesn't seem to subscribe to the idea that everything you use MUST be open source, as some more radical open source advocates do, but instead that more software SHOULD be open source.

I would definitely prefer if AI was open source and self-hosted (or at least E2EE if cloud hosted). Sometimes though the best tool for the job as things stand is closed source.

Aa for the legally dubious output, while AI can exactly replicate training data, it rarely does nowadays. It's usually an amalgam of stuff.

[–] evadersnack@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago

I highly doubt E2EE cloud LLMs are even theoretically possible. Let alone the computational overheads for said theoretical zero knowledge computing.

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