Might as well blame AI for this giant Linux release candidate, says Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds, the leader of the Linux kernel project, has taken to blaming artificial intelligence (AI) for the unusually large size of the Linux kernel's version 7.3 release candidate. In his Sunday kernel update post, Torvalds explained that while the "rc2" period is typically quiet and focused on bug fixing after the merge window, this particular release was notably larger than usual.

Torvalds couldn't pinpoint a single cause for the expanded release, noting that several filesystems, the DRM subsystem, networking components, BPF, and multiple driver trees all contributed with their respective fixes. He admitted that the late EDAC pull, which was meant to be finalized but missed, was a small factor. Torvalds also mentioned that the release could simply be a result of random events, but he jokingly attributed it to AI, stating, "we'll obviously all blame it on AI, because whether that's really the cause or not, it's an easy thing to blame."

Last week, Torvalds had blamed himself for the kernel's complications, attributing the large size to his own mistakes during the release candidate process. He admitted to making the situation more challenging than necessary by upgrading his system midway through and subsequently having to troubleshoot an issue. However, Torvalds maintained that the root cause was entirely his own fault, and he had managed to navigate the merge window without major issues.