The headline is stupid but the article is interesting. Greg is saying that since last month for some unknown reason, AI bug reports have gotten good and useful, and something current Linux maintainers can handle.
Yeah I mean, the goal is not to replace code maintainers, only to assist them in their work. Greg in general seems optimistic about it:
“I did a really stupid prompt,” he recounted. “I said, ‘Give me this,’ and it spit out 60: ‘Here’s 60 problems I found, and here’s the fixes for them.’ About one-third were wrong, but they still pointed out a relatively real problem, and two-thirds of the patches were right.” Mind you, those working patches still needed human cleanup, better changelogs, and integration work, but they were far from useless. “The tools are good,” he said. “We can’t ignore this stuff. It’s coming up, and it’s getting better.”
It’s not just bug reports; in the last month, AI driven development has actually gone from slop to reliably better than the average human.
That’s not saying it’s writing better code, just that managing the development process and catching regular bugs is now better than when run by a junior analyst.
Makes sense that a properly balanced model with randomization turned down should be able to recognize when something is being done outside the acceptable parameters.
Makes sense that a properly balanced model with randomization turned down should be able to recognize when something is being done outside the acceptable parameters.
I don’t know how you gathered such a sense when that not being true has been the main laughing point for AI since its inception. Meta AI security and safety researcher Summer Yue’s “Nothing humbles you like telling your OpenClaw ‘confirm before acting’ and watching it speedrun deleting your inbox” was just last month btw.
I’m a xennial developer. I"ve been coding for 30 years. AI now codes better (and a thousand timed faster) than most mid-level developers. The company I work for has not hired a single junior dev for months now. The new paradigm is a senior dev controlling a team of AI agents. It feels like it doesn’t even make sense to think of training juniors, because at this rate even seniors will be obsolete in a year or two.
Huh, and here I am thinking I’m dumb because it’s such a struggle getting the ai to produce usable code.
I mean. It clearly helps in some well defined areas, but actual code? like for a feature? Of a product you expect people to pay for? And you have to maintain?
And how will we continue to have senior devs to coordinate teams of AI agents if there’s no more room for junior devs? Regardless of how good a tool is, it needs to be wielded by someone who knows what they’re doing.
It’s an affectation of The Register they like reporting real news with a sometimes quirky voice. It’s also British so some of the language and humour doesn’t quite work as well in other parts of the world.
Linux kernel czar?
I’m curious about this but I refuse to click the link because that just sounds so fucking stupid.
We Brits use Czar as a colloquialism for “person in charge of…”.
So the head of the water regulator might be referred to as the water Czar (and they deserve a similar fate).
The headline is stupid but the article is interesting. Greg is saying that since last month for some unknown reason, AI bug reports have gotten good and useful, and something current Linux maintainers can handle.
Yeah, but then article says that “good” ones still need reams of human work to make them acceptable.
Article is propaganda.
Greg says they’re mostly small bug fixes and that the current maintainers can handle it, not sure where you’re getting the “reams” bit from
Says in the article that they arent good to go, needing code review, code cleanup, comment and documentation cleanup, etc
Yeah I mean, the goal is not to replace code maintainers, only to assist them in their work. Greg in general seems optimistic about it:
Can I read more about it somewhere else?
https://web.archive.org/web/20260329031010/https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/26/greg_kroahhartman_ai_kernel/
It’s not just bug reports; in the last month, AI driven development has actually gone from slop to reliably better than the average human.
That’s not saying it’s writing better code, just that managing the development process and catching regular bugs is now better than when run by a junior analyst.
Makes sense that a properly balanced model with randomization turned down should be able to recognize when something is being done outside the acceptable parameters.
I don’t know how you gathered such a sense when that not being true has been the main laughing point for AI since its inception. Meta AI security and safety researcher Summer Yue’s “Nothing humbles you like telling your OpenClaw ‘confirm before acting’ and watching it speedrun deleting your inbox” was just last month btw.
Funny, I heard that same claim about 6 months ago.
And I’m sure I’ll hear it again in another 6 months or so.
I’m a xennial developer. I"ve been coding for 30 years. AI now codes better (and a thousand timed faster) than most mid-level developers. The company I work for has not hired a single junior dev for months now. The new paradigm is a senior dev controlling a team of AI agents. It feels like it doesn’t even make sense to think of training juniors, because at this rate even seniors will be obsolete in a year or two.
AI in the software dev world is not hype.
Every single comment made by this person in the past three months is pro-AI. Every. Single. One.
Do you work for Anthropic? Perhaps, you are an LLM?
You, if you are indeed a real person, might be overestimating your proficiency, it happens.
Huh, and here I am thinking I’m dumb because it’s such a struggle getting the ai to produce usable code.
I mean. It clearly helps in some well defined areas, but actual code? like for a feature? Of a product you expect people to pay for? And you have to maintain?
I have a few questions.
Who ultimately owns/controls this particular AI? A single company? Is this a local agent they’re running themselves or are they renting?
Who’s supposed to replace the senior running all the AI?
Besides the senior, who can discern error from function?
Are they fabricating their own chips?
And how will we continue to have senior devs to coordinate teams of AI agents if there’s no more room for junior devs? Regardless of how good a tool is, it needs to be wielded by someone who knows what they’re doing.
Terrifying
It’s an affectation of The Register they like reporting real news with a sometimes quirky voice. It’s also British so some of the language and humour doesn’t quite work as well in other parts of the world.
That’s The Register’s style. Their a little weird with their copy, but their reporting has been solid, in my experience.