[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-linux-memory-reviewer-steps-back-as-ai-slop-patches-pile-up":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},12835,"linux-memory-reviewer-steps-back-as-ai-slop-patches-pile-up","Linux Memory Reviewer Steps Back as AI Slop Patches Pile Up","Lorenzo Stoakes is dropping several memory management areas of the Linux kernel, saying AI slop is now about half of what reaches his inbox.","Lorenzo Stoakes, a lead reviewer for the Linux kernel's memory management code, is giving up several of his areas. He says a flood of low-quality AI-generated patches is the reason.\n\nHe announced the move in a thread on the Linux kernel mailing list. Stoakes is leaving the core, reclaim, Rust, THP (short for huge pages) and miscellaneous sections of memory management. He is staying on for his other duties, KVM among them. He will finish the patch series he is working on and said he will pitch in now and then. The tone is amicable, but the cause is stated plainly: \"At first it was once in a while that I'd see slop. Then it was at least once a week. Then every few days. Nowadays it's pretty much half of what I see, if not more.\"\n\nThis has been building. In July he warned of a \"recent wave of slop\" in memory management and wrote that the time wasted on it was \"already too much.\" More recently he said that \"what kills the project is having 1,000 slop submissions that 2 or 3 people have to do something with.\"\n\nThe numbers in that last quote are the story. Generating a patch now costs almost nothing, while reviewing one still takes a skilled person's attention, and the kernel has few of those to spare. Linus Torvalds has taken a pro-AI stance, partly because bots often avoid mistakes that even seasoned developers make. The current position on the mailing list is that AI-assisted commits do not have to be labeled as such. That leaves reviewers sorting the good from the bad by hand, with no label to filter on.\n\nStoakes is not the first open-source figure to step back, change a submission rule or shift strategy because of AI output. Open-source projects tend to lack the staff and money to absorb the volume. The kernel is arguably the hardest test of the problem, since its review standards are strict and its reviewers are few. If a high-profile maintainer cannot keep up without cutting his workload, the open question is who handles the queue when the next one runs out of patience.","[\"linux\",\"open-source\",\"ai-code\",\"kernel\"]","2026-11-11T12:30:00.000Z","2026-11-11T13:49:23.550Z","2026-11-11T13:49:26.053Z","published",null,[],"dev-tools",[26,27,28,29],"linux","open-source","ai-code","kernel",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"Tom's Hardware","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.tomshardware.com\u002Fsoftware\u002Flinux\u002Flinux-kernel-reviewer-steps-down-from-memory-management-duties-due-to-influx-of-ai-slop-patches-the-amount-of-time-wasted-on-ai-slop-is-already-too-much-and-were-only-at-the-start-of-this-volume-of-submissions-and-low-manpower-forces-the-step-back",0,{"sections":36},[37,42,47,52,57,62,67,72,77,81,85,90,95,100],{"name":38,"slug":39,"count":40,"latest_published_at":41},"AI","ai",7144,"2026-11-12T13:27:45.000Z",{"name":43,"slug":44,"count":45,"latest_published_at":46},"Security","security",1128,"2026-11-11T18:05:00.000Z",{"name":48,"slug":49,"count":50,"latest_published_at":51},"Deals","deals",642,"2026-11-12T14:00:00.000Z",{"name":53,"slug":54,"count":55,"latest_published_at":56},"Policy","policy",619,"2026-11-12T12:53:36.000Z",{"name":58,"slug":59,"count":60,"latest_published_at":61},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",364,"2026-11-12T11:12:32.000Z",{"name":63,"slug":64,"count":65,"latest_published_at":66},"Hardware","hardware",336,"2026-11-12T11:24:43.000Z",{"name":68,"slug":69,"count":70,"latest_published_at":71},"Science","science",230,"2026-11-12T10:00:00.000Z",{"name":73,"slug":74,"count":75,"latest_published_at":76},"Software","software",168,"2026-11-11T17:36:49.000Z",{"name":78,"slug":79,"count":80,"latest_published_at":18},"Startups","startups",159,{"name":82,"slug":24,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Dev Tools",127,"2026-11-11T19:00:44.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":88,"latest_published_at":89},"General","general",118,"2026-11-11T16:49:42.000Z",{"name":91,"slug":92,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"Gaming","gaming",107,"2026-11-12T10:09:03.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":98,"latest_published_at":99},"Reviews","reviews",38,"2026-10-20T12:00:00.000Z",{"name":101,"slug":102,"count":103,"latest_published_at":104},"How-To","how-to",8,"2026-10-05T09:00:00.000Z"]