Linus Torvalds becomes a Python Vibe Coder
Linus Torvalds has tried Vibe Coding and successfully had a Python audio tool written for him. However, he rejects it for the kernel.
(Image: Bild erstellt mit KI in Bing Designer durch heise online / dmk)
- Manuel Masiero
Linus Torvalds, who has so far expressed himself rather critically about the use of AI, has himself joined the Vibe Coders. However, he did not unleash artificial intelligence, in this case Google's Antigravity AI, on the Linux kernel or Git, but rather created a hobby program called AudioNoise with its help.
The tool hosted on GitHub simulates guitar pedal effects such as echo or phaser, and Torvalds developed it primarily to better understand the basics of digital signal processing himself. He used C for about half of the program code, and then Antigravity was used for the Python-based visualization of the audio samples.
“I know more about analog filters – albeit not much more – than about Python,” Torvalds says in the Readme file for AudioNoise. Therefore, he initially programmed according to the motto “google and imitate,” but then gradually withdrew from Python coding and finally had the audio sample visualizer developed entirely by Google's AI on its initiative.
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Conclusion: Suitable for fun projects at best
The result can also be read in the Readme file: “The Python visualizer tool was basically created through Vibe Coding,” Torvalds explains there. And it does what it's supposed to do. He had so little to criticize about the AI-generated code that he adopted it without changes.
However, Vibe Coding is unsuitable for kernel development or other serious projects, Torvalds said at the Open-Source Summit in November 2025. The Linux kernel chief is also attributed the quote, “Vibe” is an abbreviation for “very inefficient but entertaining.”
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Studies repeatedly find that code quality deteriorates with the increasing use of AI assistants. The problem of AI hallucinations also remains unsolved.
(mki)
