this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
43 points (100.0% liked)

Linux

64338 readers
672 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

On the kernel security list we've seen a huge bump of reports. We were between 2 and 3 per week maybe two years ago, then reached probably 10 a week over the last year with the only difference being only AI slop, and now since the beginning of the year we're around 5-10 per day depending on the days (fridays and tuesdays seem the worst). Now most of these reports are correct, to the point that we had to bring in more maintainers to help us.

Something I'm predicting is that at least it will change the approach to security fixes: [ ... ] software that used to follow the "release-then-go-back-to-cave" model will have to change to start dealing with maintenance for real, or to just stop being proposed to the world as the ultimate-tool-for-this-and-that because every piece of software becomes a target.

[ ... ]

Overall I think we're going to see a much higher quality of software, ironically around the same level than before 2000 when the net became usable by everyone to download fixes. When the software had to be pressed to CDs or written to millions of floppies, it had to survive an amazing quantity of tests that are mostly neglected nowadays since updates are easy to distribute. But before this happens, we have to experience a huge mess that might last for a few years to come! Interesting times...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

That's the thing, this isn't AI slop.

This is using the tools for their intended purpose, rather than trying to use them to replace human-written code.

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Exactly. AI slop is just that. Slop.

If it's just an AI doing something useful, we don't call it slop, we just call it AI.

When Google's AlphaFold predicted the folding of over 200 million protein structures, and won a nobel prize for it, I don't think anyone would call all the research using it to make cures to diseases slop.

[–] NewOldGuard@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s the disadvantage of using a marketing term like “AI” to refer to literally any type of software using machine learning. We know the strengths and weaknesses of ML, it’s the current trend of pushing it as “intelligence” and a cure-all to replace workers that gives it a bad rap. Then the slop machine chatbots get treated with the same attitude as actually useful tools, and both get a reputation they don’t deserve

[–] bricklove@midwest.social 5 points 1 day ago

My parents have started calling CGI made by humans AI

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Maybe it's not slop, but this can lead to lazy developers that don't grok the code they write.

Linus was right to be sceptical about unit tests in the kernel, writing to test without understanding the problem is common in my paid job. The AI enabled equivalent of writing code without truly understanding it, is going to be much worse and is a separate issue to the pure slop AI generates at the moment.