Linux lays down the law on AI-generated code, says yes to Copilot, no to AI slop, and humans take the fall for mistakes — after months of fierce debate, Torvalds and maintainers come to an agreement

A screenshot of a Linux directory listing with a picture of Tux, the Linux mascot, in the corner; a person is walking in the reflection on the screen.

The open-source community's long-simmering identity crisis over artificial intelligence just got a much-needed dose of pragmatism. This week, the Linux kernel project finally established a formal, project-wide policy explicitly allowing AI-assisted code contributions provided that developers follow strict new disclosure rules. The new guidelines mandate that AI agents cannot use the legally binding "Signed-off-by" tag, requiring instead a new "Assisted-by" tag for transparency. Ultimately, the policy legally anchors every single line of AI-generated code and any resulting bugs or security flaws firmly onto the shoulders of the human submitting it.

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