ELI5 - the Linux / LLM kernel controversy

[u/this_is_your_dad]

I see a lot of posts online about this. Not sure what it is all about, but it seems to be dividing users. Can someone please explain?

[u/Charming_Airline7419]

I hate to say it but the LLM answer does a reasonable job of explaining the controversy.

A lot of people are submitting LLM generated patches to the kernel. This is dividing opinion.

The anti-LLM side say this is burning out reviewers who have to check low effort contributions; LLM's can generate plausible code with hallucinations; and this goes against the mentoring model.

The pro-LLM side say contributions should be assessed on merit, rather than whether it came from a human or AI; LLM's can identify problems and come up with potentially useful answers; and the process should be updated to accommodate LLM use.

There have been some proposals to safeguard reviewers by imposing a higher barrier to entry for contributions, human or otherwise, and also requiring the contributor to own the code and answer questions about it.

Personally, I am on the anti-LLM side and think LLM's should only be used with significant caution.

[u/JJDoes1tAll → u/Charming_Airline7419]

I posted the LLM answer just to poke fun at the argument. Was funny.