- Linus Torvalds says he used AI only in a personal project with no real consequences
- The code had nothing to do with Linux, Git, or any production system
- AI helped with unfamiliar Python visuals, not the core system or kernel logic
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, has spent years pushing back against exaggerated claims around artificial intelligence, describing much of the AI conversation as driven more by marketing than by practical results, and declaring he is much less interested in AI for writing code.
At the same time, Torvalds has stressed that he is not anti AI in principle, but firmly opposed to the hype that often surrounds AI tools.
Against that background, his recent admission that he used self described “vibe coding” in a personal project has drawn attention.
A hobby project, not infrastructure
The context of this decision matters, however. The code in question appears in AudioNoise, a small personal repository that Torvalds himself calls a ‘silly guitar pedal related project’.
It generates random digital audio effects and is not part of the Linux kernel, Git, or any other widely deployed system.
Torvalds has previously said that vibe coding is “ok” if you are not using it for anything important – and it seems this project fits his description closely.
Torvalds’s README explains why an AI coding tool entered the picture – the Python visualizer component sat outside his comfort zone.
In similar situations in the past, Torvalds said he would copy fragments from forum threads or Stack Overflow and adjust them until they worked – this time, he skipped that process and used Google Antigravity to generate the visualizer directly.
In that sense, the tool functioned less as a creative engine and more as a shortcut similar to familiar productivity tools developers already rely on.
The wider developer community remains divided, as some worry that developers could become obsolete if AI can code – and others question how much trust, if any, AI generated code deserves.
Torvalds’s past comments align with limited use. For him, AI is a tool for learning coding, automated patch checking, and code review.
“How do I feel, about all the code I wrote that was ingested by LLMs? I feel great to be part of that, because I see this as a continuation of what I tried to do all my life: democratizing code, systems, knowledge,” Torvalds wrote.
“LLMs are going to help us to write better software, faster, and will allow small teams to have a chance to compete with bigger companies. The same thing open source software did in the 90s.”
He noted that such systems have caught problems he missed, but this does not endorse AI written code for core systems.
Even as people argue online, Torvalds was simply experimenting during a holiday break. The episode suggests pragmatism rather than a change in philosophy.
Via ArsTechnica
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