AI-assisted bug fixing is now an increasingly common thing in Linux kernel development (according to Linus, at least). He notes there are a growing number of AI-related fixes in the 7.4-rc2 that he’s just released.
More interestingly, he suggests that it may actually be helping us get ahead of the incoming bug reports in some areas of the kernel.
In his Nov 8 announcement, he noted that a large amount of the recent kernel maintenance work had been AI-assisted fixes and that he might not need to point that out in future release announcements.
“And yes, much of this was driven by various AI fixes. I think I’ll stop repeating that, and we can just take it for granted,” Torvalds wrote.
He also had a very positive note from BPF maintainer Alexei Starovoitov, who noted that the rate of fixes in the BPF subsystem is now exceeding the rate of new bug reports.
If that rate of progress continues, then it could mean that the developers are actually starting to work through the existing backlog of bugs that have been reported rather than just keeping up with the new ones that are discovered. Torvalds was careful not to present this as a kernel-wide achievement.
“I think most other areas haven’t reached that point yet, but it’s at least a sign that we may be starting to see the tide starting to turn,” he wrote.
The comments went with the release of Linux 7.4-rc2, which Torvalds describes as being rather large, following what he calls the largest first rc ever in the history of the Linux kernel, with much of that apparent size due to automated Coccinelle updates.
Importantly, Torvalds didn’t say which of the AI tools were responsible for the fixes that were reported, nor did he say which of the patches in fact came from AI. His comments make no suggestion that AI-generated code is being accepted without the normal kernel review process.
Still, the direction is clear – the comments suggest that AI-assisted bug finding and bug fixing has become so commonplace in kernel development that Linus no longer finds it the least bit surprising.
