Linux founder Linus Torvalds says AI is a “gateway drug” into programming — but cautions about using AI for “serious” work

At the Open Source Summit in Prague, Linux founder Linus Torvalds shared a nuanced view of AI in programming. He described AI as a “gateway drug” that lowers the barrier to entry for junior coders and teens, helping them start learning without feeling overwhelmed by today's polished professional code. He noted that his own early games “sucked”, but the low bar of the time made that acceptable—something today's newcomers lack. However, he cautioned that using AI for “serious” work, especially when starting out, is risky unless the user knows exactly what they want and what the outcome should be; he recommended beginning with “toy” or personal projects.

Torvalds also addressed AI-generated vulnerability reports and patches, which he said have made the Linux security mailing list “almost entirely unmanageable” due to enormous duplication and irrelevant reports about unused code. Despite this, he believes AI is overall improving the codebase, though at the cost of maintainer stress—three quarters of discussions at the maintainer summit concerned making AI tools less stressful and more useful. Ironically, he said the solution is not less AI but more AI: “fighting the AI deluge of patches with our own AI deluge of patch reviews,” with bots even talking to bots.

(Source：Yahoo Tech)