Linux creator Linus Torvalds says the kernel project has entered a "new normal" of unusually large updates, which he attributes largely to the growing role of AI tools in reviewing and fixing code. In his weekly release-candidate update for the upcoming Linux 7.2, he noted that despite the sheer volume of changes, he isn't especially worried, as nothing appears seriously risky and most fixes are small and scattered across drivers, filesystems and core networking code.

The seventh release candidate is unusually large, following on from a similarly outsized sixth candidate that Torvalds called the biggest by commit count in years. He highlighted a handful of more significant changes, including s390/zcrypt fixes, the return of btrfs fixup worker infrastructure, and netfilter ipset fixes, but said the bulk consists of minor tweaks spread across the kernel. Torvalds, who has previously criticised poor-quality AI-generated contributions and a flood of duplicate AI bug reports while insisting Linux is not "anti-AI", says the size of rc7 won't delay Linux 7.2, which he expects to ship next weekend with improvements including better GPU and CPU scheduling.