this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2026
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AI ethics aside (but not discounted overall), if there's one person I trust above all others to use an LLM to assist in coding properly, it's Linus Torvalds.
This is categorically impossible for any ways in which the LLM could reasonably "assist".
Putting aside any potentially elitist definitions of the word "properly" and simply taking it to mean "code that functions and isn't malware", you're stuck with the same modus operandi you get copy-pasting snippets from stack overflow and hand editing them to fit your codebase.
To wit: you still need to go over every single bit of code to determine whether or not it's safe to include in your existing codebase, and unlike stack overflow, output from an LLM isn't being simultaneously examined by other experts for flaws at the same time you're looking at it.
We need to stop treating LLM's like they're in any way a "robot programmer".
They are database reorganization engines
(data lake of indexed, ingested material)
with a static output style
(resemble human speech patterns)
that is specifically, deliberately written to deceive about its own capability and purpose.
(speak with confidence, which is a thing that a script or a program cannot have, as though it is performing a specific requested task and not just vomiting up the contents of its proverbial shelves because someone handed it an hand crafted index card that menrions a few things from the card catalog it uses)
There should be no place for that in programming.
why are they booing you, you're right! it's exactly that. LLMs are great for bulshitting confidently.
It may be that LLMs are database reorganization engines, but they are becoming pretty fucking good at it lately. I don't have experience with them writing C, but for higher level-languages the output has just become very good.