Linus Torvalds says 'huge' Linux kernel updates are now the status quo — and it's all thanks to AI

Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, has announced that oversized release candidates are now the norm due to the use of AI tools for reviews. This comes a week after he called the previous release candidate, rc6, the biggest in years by commit count. The growth in fixes is mainly in late-cycle bug fixes rather than new features, and Torvalds attributes this to AI review tools rather than AI authoring the code.

Modern coding practices suggest that Release Candidates should become smaller as the software stabilizes, but Linux 7.2-rc7 has not followed this trend. In RC7, over 400 fixes were contributed by more than 230 contributors, which is unusual for a release candidate so late in the cycle. While Torvalds doesn't particularly like the AI approach, he acknowledges its benefits in code review and suggests that it could impact the maintainer model, which involves trusted individuals reviewing and testing code before release.

For now, larger updates seem to be the new norm, and AI is playing an increasingly significant role in code review across various devices that make up the world's servers, smartphones, tablets, and personal computers.