So what happens thirty years from now when 95% of the kernel code is AI generated? It’ll be a lot easier to rewrite the parts that aren’t, and have a fully closed source kernel that you can use without following the GPL.
The short answer is that this is a slippery slope argument.
The long answer is:
In this hypothetical future where 95% of the Linux kernel is AI generated, it stands to reason that generating an OS kernel is possible (by definition of the hypothetical).
If generating a full OS kernel is possible then people could generate a fully closed source kernel without using any of the 5% of GPL protected code in the Linux kernel.
If you allow that it’s possible for AI to create a kernel with AI generated code then it will happen regardless of the status of the Linux kernel’s copyright protections.
Generating code costs a lot of money, as does the expertise to review the code. People aren’t going to want to spend the many millions of dollars to do that when they could use a GPL kernel. Of course if the kernel is not only free, but basically public domain, it solves all of their problems. They can modify it and keep those modifications closed source, the complete antithesis of what the GPL stands for.
Well, that isn’t the case now and isn’t likely to be the case anytime in the near future.
The rules are not written in stone and future Linus will have a better idea of the capabilities of future AI and can change the rules accordingly, as he has done since the beginning, in order to steer the Linux project in the right direction.
So what happens thirty years from now when 95% of the kernel code is AI generated? It’ll be a lot easier to rewrite the parts that aren’t, and have a fully closed source kernel that you can use without following the GPL.
The short answer is that this is a slippery slope argument.
The long answer is:
In this hypothetical future where 95% of the Linux kernel is AI generated, it stands to reason that generating an OS kernel is possible (by definition of the hypothetical).
If generating a full OS kernel is possible then people could generate a fully closed source kernel without using any of the 5% of GPL protected code in the Linux kernel.
If you allow that it’s possible for AI to create a kernel with AI generated code then it will happen regardless of the status of the Linux kernel’s copyright protections.
Generating code costs a lot of money, as does the expertise to review the code. People aren’t going to want to spend the many millions of dollars to do that when they could use a GPL kernel. Of course if the kernel is not only free, but basically public domain, it solves all of their problems. They can modify it and keep those modifications closed source, the complete antithesis of what the GPL stands for.
Well, that isn’t the case now and isn’t likely to be the case anytime in the near future.
The rules are not written in stone and future Linus will have a better idea of the capabilities of future AI and can change the rules accordingly, as he has done since the beginning, in order to steer the Linux project in the right direction.