Linus Torvalds: Vibe coding is fine, but not for production (www.theregister.com)

At the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit in Seoul, Linus Torvalds said he’s “fairly positive” about “vibe coding” — using AI or rapid prototyping to get things working — but warned it’s fine for learning or experiments, not production. He stressed that modern systems are far more complex than hobbyist code and that AI-generated or vibe-driven code can be “horrible” to maintain, especially in critical long-lived projects like the Linux kernel. Torvalds himself isn’t using AI-assisted coding and views AI as another productivity tool, akin to compilers: transformative but not a replacement for engineering discipline. Technically, Torvalds confirmed Rust is moving from experiment to a real part of the kernel, though adoption has been slower and contentious among long-term maintainers. He shrugged off concerns that Nvidia’s proprietary GPU microkernel and CUDA are supplanting Linux, noting that vendor-specific user-space ecosystems are normal and that AI has pushed Nvidia to be a better kernel player. A concrete operational problem he highlighted is AI crawlers scraping kernel.org, generating misleading bug/security reports from misuse of AI—an annoyance for maintainers and a bigger issue for other projects. Overall he advocated cautious, pragmatic use of AI: useful for entry and productivity, but unacceptable as a substitute for maintainable, reviewed production code.