Linux kernel maintainer Linus Torvalds has jokingly suggested blaming AI for an unusually large second release candidate (rc2) of Linux 7.3, noting that this stage of development is normally quiet as contributors take a breather after the merge window. He said he could not identify a single clear cause for the unexpected volume of changes, but acknowledged the jibe was more a convenient scapegoat than a serious diagnosis.

In his regular Sunday kernel update, Torvalds pointed to several contributing factors, including a forgotten EDAC pull, fixes from multiple filesystems, a sizeable set of scattered DRM fixes, and additional updates from networking, BPF and various driver trees. He admitted nothing looked particularly unusual, saying it "might be just random". The comments follow last week's rc1 announcement, in which Torvalds blamed himself, rather than AI, for a difficult merge window after performing a mid-cycle system upgrade that caused complications he had to resolve.