Update — The Linux kernel has dropped the requirement for the Assisted-by tag, the line that identified the use of AI tools in patches. The decision, taken by maintainers at the Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit in Prague on October 8, was formalized in the documentation and merged into the mainline tree by October 21, for Linux 7.4, according to reports from The Register and LWN reproduced on October 23 and 24. This article follows up on the matéria anterior do Geekiki sobre Torvalds e o Claude Code, published on October 17, when Torvalds was still criticizing the disclosure rules.
What changes, in practice, is the stamp — not the responsibility. The section explaining the Assisted-by format was removed from the coding-assistants documentation, and the patch-checking tool no longer recognizes the tag. The removal patch does not prohibit voluntary use of the tag, but it is no longer mandatory.
The reason is pragmatic: the tag did not work as a reliable signal. Of the 18,533 non-merge commits accepted through the seventh release candidate of Linux 7.3, only 1,884 — about 10% — carried the tag. Since nobody knew how many patches actually used AI, the absence of the tag did not prove that no tool had been used, and few maintainers checked for it. The decision was not unanimous, but it had strong support at the summit.
What remains is the core of the rule: only a human can sign a patch with Signed-off-by, taking on the code-origin certification — AI cannot sign. Maintainers can still reject patches the author cannot understand or explain, and the generated-content document still requires clarity about origin when a submission contains a large amount of tool-generated material produced by someone other than the signer.
Linus Torvalds's position, as reported by The Register, sums up the new balance: competent developers should be able to use AI as a tool, and the problem is not the tool itself but “drive-by” patches — submitted by people who do not understand the code and do not intend to take part in the project. Support for AI, therefore, is not automatic approval of any AI-generated patch: review, understanding and human responsibility remain the filter.
Image credit: Linus Torvalds at LinuxCon Europe 2014, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: NeoTeo and XenoSpectrum, based on reports from The Register and LWN on the maintainers' decision
Transparency: this article was produced with the help of artificial intelligence, based on cross-checking public posts on X and internet sources. Check the original sources to confirm the details before sharing.
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