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ZDNET's key takeaways
Linus Torvalds used vibe programming for a toy program.
Vibe programming remains risky for serious projects.
Linux developers have adopted AI tools for maintenance work.
Linus Torvalds has started playing with vibe coding. Yes, really! He's using Google's Antigravity AI assistant to generate parts of a new hobby project rather than writing all the code himself. In doing so, he has become the highest-profile programmer yet to adopt this rapidly spreading, and often mocked, AI-driven programming.
Mind you, Torvalds is not using this on the programs that made him famous, Linux and Git, or even his best-known hobby program, the diving program SubSurface. Instead, it's a trivial program called AudioNoise -- a recent side project focused on digital audio effects and signal processing. He started it after building physical guitar pedals, GuitarPedal, to learn about audio circuits. He now gives them as gifts to kernel developers and, recently, to Bill Gates.
Also: Linus Torvalds is 'a huge believer' in using AI to maintain code - just don't call it a revolution
While Torvalds hand‑coded the C components, he turned to Antigravity for a Python‑based audio sample visualizer. He openly acknowledges that he leans on online snippets when working in languages he knows less well. Who doesn't?
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