r/linux • u/MMORPGDev • 19h ago

Development Linux Kernel Developers Plan To Remove "Assisted-By" Tag Requirement For AI/LLM Usage

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Dropping-Assisted-By-Req
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u/stylist-trend 19h ago

Agreed. I don't mind an "assisted by AI" tag or something, but I'm not a big fan of when it's like "Co-engineered by the latest ClaudeTM OpusTM 5.5"

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u/Standard-Potential-6 18h ago

Developed-on Archbtw

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u/Epistaxis 9h ago

I think it actually is important to say which LLM version wrote the code. They have different "personalities", different capabilities (their users have strong opinions about these), and we may discover one of them has a specific habit that we really wish it wouldn't have (in the worst case maybe it's compromised and has been inserting backdoors or somesuch), so it could be helpful to be able to search for previous code written by that same LLM version.

This is one of the same reasons that a human coder signs off with a name, or at least a consistent pseudonym, instead of just Written-by: Human.

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u/stylist-trend 8h ago

I don't think any of this should matter if the code is properly reviewed by the human submitting it (if they expect kernel developers to read it, the least they should do is also read it themselves), and that the human takes responsibility for the code. From my understanding, the kernel doesn't mind when submissions use AI assistance, but purely unreviewed AI-coded slop shouldn't make it to the LKML.

Both humans and LLM based tools should be able to detect backdoors, and submissions shouldn't be so large that a backdoor could easily hide in it anyway. I get the worry, but I don't feel like these hypotheticals translate well into the real world.

Signing off with a name is that human taking responsibility, something an AI cannot do. I feel like that's different.

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u/frankster 16h ago

Quite!