L3ft_F13ld!

After a few revisions of his position on AI-assisted contributions to the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds has posted his own first LLM-assisted patch. The development branch purports to fix an old issue with massive cache contention when many CPUs are reading the same file — a scenario potentially encountered when using shared libraries, databases, and web servers. Several developers had already made attempts over the years at fixing the issue, all with varied results, none quite ideal as an all-encompassing solution.

Torvalds posted his own draft for solving the problem in early 2024, and has used it on his own laptop since that time. However, he recently took the plunge and decided to “try to actually solve this thing using an LLM.” He’s now posted his solution in a development branch, and claims that he’s seen a 23x performance improvement in a dedicated synthetic benchmark, though he notes that actual real-world impact will be far less significant, as “no real load” will witness those figures. If we had to guess, this improvement would benefit server workloads far more than desktop machines.

Over time, Torvalds has broadly taken a pro-AI stance on LLM tooling, at least within the purview of the tightly controlled, review-heavy environment of the Linux kernel code. Last July, he stated he’s “willing to absolutely put [his] foot down” on AI haters, pointing out that an automated code review tool the kernel team uses outperforms humans, and that it caught basic programming mistakes that shouldn’t have been submitted in the first place.

The team is even changing its policy to no longer require that patch authors disclose they used an AI tool when generating their code. Torvalds once again took an assertive stance, reiterating that users should treat LLMs as yet another tool, likening it to compilers or editors. In his view, he simply expects that “people do their best and […] understand what they are doing.”

Some might say that few people in the world are better-suited to properly employ an LLM than Torvalds, and by extension, kernel maintainers. There’s an entire universe of difference between a senior master programmer using the LLM to speed up the boring parts of his work, and some newbie with a credit card going “claude make linux faster plz no mistakes.”

However, It’s not all roses. Thanks to how adept AI agents have become at recognizing common security flaw patterns, the Linux security mailing list became “unmanageable” earlier in the year. Linux has been fixing CVEs at an astonishingly rapid pace of around 2,000 per release. Still, the team’s hand is being forced into dropping older hardware drivers, as they’re often the target of numerous security reports, despite their negligible install base.

Boston

Boston drops Flock after outside agencies gained access to vehicle data

Flock A Flock Safety automated license plate reader camera in Massachusetts on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. Police agencies nationwide use Flock Safety cameras to passively capture and log information about passing vehicles.

Days after Boston launched its Flock Safety pilot program in April 2025, the surveillance system shared vehicle data in violation of the Boston Police Department’s contract.

The disclosure, first reported by WBUR ahead of the release of the city’s 2025 Surveillance Technology Report to the City Council on Monday, surfaced one day after Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the city has “abandoned Flock.”

“When the toggles or the access controls … either are not able to be restricted in the ways that conform with that policy, or are set — but then can be unset, or reset, in ways that violate that policy, we would not use that platform,” Wu said, in a conversation Sunday with GBH’s Boston Public Radio.

Wu spoke the day before a report on the city’s surveillance technologies was set to be released to the City Council, according to WBUR.

Required under the city’s Surveillance Oversight Ordinance, the annual report provides an accounting of how Boston agencies use surveillance technologies, including data-sharing practices, costs, effectiveness and privacy safeguards. This serves to inform city officials and the public about how surveillance technologies are being used.

When Flock and the Boston Police Department began its contract for 156 days at no cost to the city from April 1, 2025 to Sept. 4, 2025, the “contract clearly noted that data sharing was to be disabled, and BPD confirmed with Flock that settings were ‘off’ for sharing,” read the 2025 annual report slated to be released Monday, WBUR reported.

However, “within three days of initiating the Pilot, BPD became aware that other law enforcement agencies were able to access license plate and vehicle information,” blaming an “error” by Flock, according to WBUR.

“Upon learning of the vendor error, BPD ensured that the function was immediately disabled and access to the Department’s data was no longer available without submitting a written request to BPD as described above. No further direct access was available for the duration of the Pilot,” the report read.

The report showed that Boston police received 77 requests from outside law enforcement agencies for access to Flock data during the pilot, the outlet reported, while an internal audit found officers conducted 11,004 database searches and failed to include a case number tied to a criminal investigation about half the time.

The report did not make clear which law enforcement agencies had access to the Flock data in Boston or how many drivers in the state were exposed, though “thousands of agencies” have access to the national network, according to the outlet.

Flock’s ALPR technology has faced growing scrutiny in Massachusetts by both police departments and lawmakers in recent months, prompting a wave of police departments to reconsider or end participation in the system.

Local departments in Bellingham, Auburn and Stow, in addition to several other communities, have recently announced plans to terminate, suspend or reevaluate their contracts. The debate has also intensified following claims of misuse by Massachusetts officers.

In Stow, an officer resigned after his department claimed he used Flock cameras and other law enforcement databases to obtain information about a personal acquaintance, for no legitimate law enforcement purpose. The department subsequently removed all of its Flock cameras.

In New Bedford, an officer was placed on administrative leave amid allegations she used the department’s Flock system to track her ex-girlfriend.

The controversy has also drawn attention on Beacon Hill, where lawmakers are weighing new regulations for automatic license plate reader systems, such as statewide guardrails governing how the technology can be used, who can access the data and when information can be shared with outside agencies.

The Boston Police Department and the Office of Mayor Michelle Wu did not immediately respond to MassLive for comment Monday.