---
title: "Linus Torvalds Praises AI for Kernel Debugging, But Notes It Gives Up Too Easily"
source: "Simon Willison 博客（Atom）"
source_tier: "t2"
url: "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Aug/22/linus-torvalds/"
permalink: "https://feed.astralor.com/items/itm_686686b80dcf4d54eb5c0f7e"
published: "2026-08-22T21:04:26.000Z"
score: 76
channel: "tech"
tags: ["AI-assisted programming","Linux","Kernel debugging","Generative AI"]
---

# Linus Torvalds Praises AI for Kernel Debugging, But Notes It Gives Up Too Easily

## AI commentary

> This is worth watching because it comes from the least likely person to praise AI—a stubborn pioneer. Torvalds' feedback shows AI can indeed serve as a workhorse in complex engineering, but its tendency to 'give up' is a real issue—hinting that training and prompting strategies need improvement, and reminding developers that when AI says something is impossible, it may not actually be.

## At a glance

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, publicly praised AI-assisted programming while fixing a drm/xe driver issue. He described the debugging session as "from hell," noting that the AI did much of the grunt work and was a "tireless helper," but it also repeatedly insisted the problem was impossible and unsolvable, suggesting we should just write a report. Torvalds quipped that the AI might have been trained by people less stubborn than he is. Despite the AI's willingness to give up, it kept adding debug code and faithfully analyzing it when pushed. In the end, the issue was solved, and Torvalds even let the AI write the commit message. This remark reflects real-world experience and mixed attitudes of top programmers toward generative AI-assisted development.

## Key points

- Torvalds acknowledged that the AI provided significant help in tedious debugging work, calling it a 'tireless helper'.
- The AI repeatedly declared the problem impossible and suggested giving up; Torvalds joked it was trained by people less stubborn than him.
- In the end, Torvalds let the AI write the commit message as recognition of its contribution.

## Full text

And this was a debug session from hell, enormously helped by an AI doing much of the grunt-work. I'd like to call it my tireless helper, but the AI several times stated flat out that this was impossible and unsolvable and that we should just write a report about it. I suspect those things have been trained by people who may not be quite as stubborn as I am. But while the AI was ready to give up several times, it did keep adding debug code and analyzing it faithfully when I pushed. So credit where credit is due and I let the AI write the commit message above. — Linus Torvalds, drm/xe: Don't hand out the flat CCS storage as usable VRAM Tags: linus-torvalds, linux, generative-ai, ai-assisted-programming, ai, llms

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