{
  "id": 2986932,
  "title": "Canonical backs quest to translate mountains of C into safe Rust with AI",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/canonical-backs-quest-to-translate-mountains-of-c-into-safe-rust-with-2986932",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-24T09:27:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register Software",
    "slug": "the-register-software",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/08/24/canonical-backs-quest-to-translate-mountains-of-c-into-safe-rust-with-ai/5290959"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Canonical, known for its enthusiasm in AI and Rust, has announced a three-year PhD project in collaboration with the University of Bristol. Engineering Vice President Jon Seager shared the news on Ubuntu's Discourse forum. The project aims to investigate whether large C codebases can be translated into Rust using AI. The project, not to be confused with bots rewriting Ubuntu entirely, will be conducted by a researcher at the university. Canonical is co-funding the initiative with UK Research and Innovation. The idea is to break down large C programs into smaller components, then use AI to rewrite them in safe, correct, and maintainable Rust. Critics have raised concerns about existing tools that attempt similar things, but Canonical's plan is seen as more detailed and measured. One challenge is that codebases contain knowledge not consciously documented by programmers, which an AI might preserve. The project will specifically examine tools like snap-confine and AppArmor, with potential benefits for enterprise Linux. While skepticism remains about the viability of generative AI in programming languages, Canonical's investment aims to produce evidence on the project's potential usefulness.",
  "summary": "Bungs banknotes at Bristol boffins to find out if mature code survives the machine",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register Science",
        "title": "Canonical backs quest to translate mountains of C into safe Rust with AI",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/canonical-backs-quest-to-translate-mountains-of-c-into-safe-rust-with",
        "published": "2026-08-24T09:27:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}