Linux 7.1-rc5 drops, Torvalds frustrated with AI patch spam

Linus dropped the 7.1-rc5 release candidate and made it clear he's not thrilled with where things stand. The kernel's getting fatter, patches keep rolling in when they should've stopped weeks ago, and he's pinning some of the blame on AI-generated code contributions flooding the pipeline. Want to guess what happens when you let machine learning tools loose on a codebase that's supposed to be in freeze mode?

The real problem here is timing. Release candidates exist for a reason: you lock down the code, you fix bugs, you don't add new bloat. But lately, automated systems are treating the RC phase like it's open season, dumping changes that probably should've waited for the next cycle. Torvalds isn't wrong to be frustrated. Late-stage patches are how regressions slip through, and regressions in the kernel don't just break your laptop—they break infrastructure.

This isn't about rejecting AI tools outright. It's about recognizing that machines don't understand release discipline. They see a codebase and start optimizing, refactoring, suggesting improvements without context for where we are in the development timeline. The maintainers are going to need better gates on what gets pulled in during RC phases, or they're going to keep fighting this battle.