Re: [MAINTAINERS SUMMIT] The role of AI and LLMs in the kernel process

[Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>]

On Tue, Aug 05, 2025 at 06:55:29PM +0100, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
>On Tue, Aug 05, 2025 at 12:43:38PM -0400, James Bottomley wrote:
>> I think that's really overlooking the fact that if properly trained (a
>> somewhat big *if* depending on the model) AI should be very good at
>> writing safe code in unsafe languages.  However it takes C specific
>
>I fundamentally disagree.
>
>The consequences of even extremely small mistakes can be very serious in C,
>as the language does little to nothing for you.
>
>No matter how much data it absorbs it cannot span the entire space of all
>possible programs or even anywhere close.

Neither can a human :)

I think that this is where we see things differently: I don't think that
AI needs to be perfect, I just want it to be at the same lever (or
better) than a human.

Humans aren't great at writing C code. There's a reason we're looking at
using Rust for the kernel, and there's a reason that LTS trees exist -
they're living evidence of just how many mistakes humans make.

Look at the contents of LTS trees or the CVEs that get assigned: most of
them are fairly simple memory safety issues, off-by-one, use-after-free,
etc...

I don't think we should expect a bar for AI that is higher than the one
we set for humans.

-- 
Thanks,
Sasha