Kernel developer’s perspective: The kernel is just software. It doesn’t have security bugs, just bugs. It doesn’t have any opinions on userspace, just contracts for how its API will behave. Its quality control is determined by whether it boots on like five machines owned by three people; it used to be whether it booted Linus’ favorite machine. It doesn’t have a contract for its contributors aside from GPLv2 and an informal agreement to not take people to court with GPLv2 contract violations. So, LLM contributions are… just contributions.

It might help to remember that the Linux development experience includes lots of aggressive critique of code. Patches are often rejected. Corporations are heavily scrutinized for ulterior motives. Personal insults are less common than they used to be but still happen, egos clash constantly, and sometimes folks burn out and give up contributing purely because they cannot stand the culture. It’s already not a place where contributors are assumed to have good faith.

More cynically, it seems that Linus has recently started using generative tools, so perhaps his reluctance to craft special contributor rules is part of his personal preference towards those tools. I’d be harsher on that preference if it weren’t also paying dividends by e.g. allowing Rust in the kernel.