Linus Torvalds on Debugging the Kernel with AI

Linus Torvalds credited an AI assistant for helping debug a Linux kernel issue that required 24 patches and 18 kernel boots to resolve, with the final fix being a one-line change from round_up() to round_down(). In a commit message, Torvalds noted the AI repeatedly declared the problem unsolvable but continued adding and analyzing debug code when pushed, and he let the AI write the commit message.

Linus Torvalds on Debugging the Kernel with AI And this was a debug session from hell, enormously helped by an AI doing much of the grunt-work. I’d like to call it my tireless helper, but the AI several times stated flat out that this was impossible and unsolvable and that we should just write a report about it. I suspect those things have been trained by people who may not be quite as stubborn as I am. But while the AI was ready to give up several times, it did keep adding debug code and analyzing it faithfully when I pushed. So credit where credit is due and I let the AI write the commit message above. This is basically a one-liner fixing a bogus round up to a round down , but there were 24 patches adding more and more debug information to this, and 18 kernel boot to finally narrow it down to this. — Linus Linus Torvalds, in the commit message https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/818bebeb63dd6bf5f4e07e145f6cdbace520a34c for a kernel fix. I troubleshoot every now and then myself, and it’s way harder than programming, tbh. AI can’t always find the root cause. But it’s still a tireless companion to have on-call — it surfaces details I’d have missed on my own, and some of them are the ones that end up pointing the way.