Linux maintainers move to drop AI disclosure tag as Torvalds mocks calls to keep it
A patch would remove the kernel's Assisted-by tag for AI-assisted code. Torvalds told a developer who objected that such rules would be "UTTERLY STUPID", The Next Web reported.
Linux kernel maintainers are moving to scrap a rule that asked contributors to disclose when they use AI coding tools, and Linus Torvalds has rejected a call to keep it, according to The Next Web.
The rule is the Assisted-by tag. Since January, the kernel's documentation had asked anyone using "any sort of advanced coding tool" to add the tag to their commit message, the outlet reported. On 9 October, Sasha Levin, a kernel developer and Nvidia engineer, proposed removing it in a mailing list patch. "The Maintainers Summit reached consensus to deprecate the Assisted-by Tag," Levin wrote. The patch has drawn more than 50 replies.
Laurent Pinchart, a kernel developer and founder of Ideas on Board, objected on 13 October. "I'm not happy removing the tag without adding another mechanism for required disclosure," he wrote. Torvalds answered him on the mailing list that same day. The Next Web, citing The Register, which first reported the exchange, quoted his reply:
“Do you not see how UTTERLY STUPID those kinds of rules would be?”Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel mailing list
Torvalds wrote that he expects people to understand what they are doing, but "that understanding has very little to do with what tools they use." He mocked the idea by proposing a rule that Pinchart should not use compilers for his kernel submissions.
The debate matters because the kernel is reworking how it handles AI-assisted work. Jeff Layton, a kernel developer at Red Hat, had argued for dropping the tag. He said not everyone follows the policy, that the tag "basically serves as free advertising for proprietary LLM companies", and that it is unclear why the kernel collects the information at all. Pinchart said the rule sets expectations even if some people cheat.
Days earlier, at Open Source Summit Europe in Prague, Torvalds said he now really likes using AI, The Next Web reported, citing ZDNet. He said AI "is improving our code base" but is "also stressing maintainers out to the point that it's a problem." He said about three quarters of the talks at the Maintainers Summit were about making AI tools less stressful.
Other projects are taking the opposite approach. According to The Next Web, System76 has banned AI-generated content from its COSMIC desktop, and NetBSD has banned AI-generated code since 2024.
Some things are still unclear. The Next Web's headline says Linux drops the tag, but its report describes a proposed patch and does not say whether the change has been merged. It also does not say whether any other disclosure mechanism will replace the tag, as Pinchart asked.
