Linus Torvalds Jokingly Blames AI for Bloated Linux 7.3-rc2

Linux kernel maintainer Linus Torvalds, in his weekly Sunday kernel update post, observed that the 7.3-rc2 release candidate is unexpectedly large — a "full" rc2 rather than the typical quiet period after the merge window.

"rc2 is usually the quietest time after the merge window, people take a breather and it takes a while for bugs to be found. But this one is different — this is a 'full' rc2."

Torvalds listed several contributors to the size: a late EDAC pull request missed the merge window, multiple filesystem fixes, a sizable DRM pull request with scattered fixes, networking and BPF fixes, and driver tree fixes. He noted no single cause stands out.

"It might just be random, but we'll definitely blame AI. Because whether it's AI's fault or not, it's always easy to make it the scapegoat ;)"

The previous week, announcing 7.3-rc1, Torvalds had already flagged its large size — not the largest ever but high in commit count — and took personal responsibility for a self-inflicted complication: he performed a system upgrade mid-merge window, which created unnecessary trouble.

"I know I shouldn't have done that, but I naively thought 'nothing will go wrong.' In the end everything was fine, I just made the merge process harder than it needed to be."

The episode illustrates the practical realities of kernel release management: unpredictable patch volumes, the challenge of keeping merge windows clean, and the maintainer's willingness to own mistakes while keeping a sense of humor about external factors like AI.