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The Linux inventor wants to treat AI tools the same as other tools – and sees no reason for special treatment regarding copyright of AI contributions.
(Image: tadamichi/Shutterstock.com)
According to Linus Torvalds, AI-powered developer tools are just tools, so they don't require new rules for kernel development – and established practices also apply to copyright issues. This is a brief and general summary of some statements made by the Linux inventor this week during an ongoing discussion.
The statements were prompted by a $(LEhttps://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20251105231514.3167738-1-dave.hansen@linux.intel.com/:submission for review, which defines guidelines for the use of AI-tools in the development of Torvalds' kernel. Members of the Linux Technical Advisory Board drafted it after a debate about awards for the use of AI tools a few months ago, when a developer from Linux's stable team had pushed ahead. The latter has been using machine learning for some time and now AI tools to identify patches worth backporting to older versions.
However, nothing has been decided regarding the AI guidelines yet. The text and discussions are intended to form the basis for a decision at this year's Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit in early December in Tokyo, to which about 30 of the most important Linux developers are invited annually.
Torvalds' statement classifying AI tools as normal tools is not far from the basic tone of the presented guidelines. These classify AI-powered developer tools as an even more sophisticated form of complex tools that have been in use for a longer time – for example, the refactoring tool Coccinelle, which has occasionally been used in Linux development for years. As before, developers should therefore document exactly which tools they used and how when developing a patch.
According to the proposed guidelines, this should not apply to simple tools, such as those for reformatting code or for find and replace. Torvalds objected to this, as he wants their use to be documented just as thoroughly – and points to some older changes where the patch description describes how developers performed more complex renamings using 'sed'. He emphasizes that AI tools do not need special treatment.
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Torvalds sees it similarly regarding copyright, as he explains in a later discussion contribution: The copyright aspect applies to other code just as well. For example, he states that the kernel already contains all sorts of computer-generated code, such as millions of lines in headers of the Amdgpu driver. What he doesn't say, but apparently means: The responsibility ultimately lies with the developer submitting the code.
In that same email, Torvalds also takes a jab at AI, noting that the special thing about AI is "the hype and the billions and billions of dollars." He later concludes, "AI is just another tool, people. One that some people make a lot of money with. And yes, it will change society. But it is and remains just a tool."
(olb)