On Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 05:39:48PM -0500, James Bottomley wrote: > On Wed, 2026-01-07 at 21:15 +0000, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote: > > On Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 11:18:52AM -0800, Dave Hansen wrote: > > > On 1/7/26 10:12, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote: > > > ... > > > > I know Linus had the cute interpretation of it 'just being > > > > another tool' but never before have people been able to do this. > > > > > > I respect your position here. But I'm not sure how to reconcile: > > > > > > LLMs are just another tool > > > and > > > LLMs are not just another tool > > > > > > :) > > > > Well I'm not asking you to reconcile that, I'm providing my point of > > view which disagrees with the first position and makes a case for the > > second. Isn't review about feedback both positive and negative? > > > > Obviously if this was intended to simply inform the community of the > > committee's decision then apologies for misinterpreting it. > > > > I would simply argue that LLMs are not another tool on the basis of > > the drastic negative impact its had in very many areas, for which you > > need only take a cursory glance at the world to observe. > > > > Thinking LLMs are 'just another tool' is to say effectively that the > > kernel is immune from this. Which seems to me a silly position. > > All tools are double edged and the better a tool is the more > problematic its harmful uses become but people often use them anyway > because of the beneficial uses. You don't for instance classify > chainsaws as not another tool because they can be used to deforest the > Amazon. All the document is saying is that we start from the place of > treating AI like any other tool and, like any other tool, if it proves > to cause way more problems than it solves, then we can then move on to > other things. There are other tools we've tried and abandoned (like > compiling the kernel with c++), so this really isn't any different.
I mean using the same analogy I'd say the existing norms are designed for spoons, you'd probably not want to apply those same to a chainsaw :) > > Regards, > > James >
