Re: [PATCH] docs: remove Assisted-by references

[Jori Koolstra <jkoolstra@xs4all.nl>]

> Op 23-10-2026 12:44 EDT schreef Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org>:
> 
> Again, to me, it's just a scaling issue - nobody can read hundreds or
> thousands of mails a day effectively, and maintainers and reviewers are
> past capacity even now.
> 
> And agreed, we need talented young people coming up and it kills me that
> they might be discouraged both by 'AI will take over so what's the point'
> and the hordes of 'competing' people sending slop.
> 

There's a striking parallel with the mathematics community in this regard.
They are dealing with a similar problem where the old way used to be you
make a name for yourself by proving a hard theorem (Linux equivalent:
you make a name for yourself with sweeping patchsets.) That does not
really work as well anymore as a signal for competency (at least in maths):

"Among the mathematicians I have spoken with, the prevailing sentiment
is that this traditional mechanism of recognition has effectively collapsed
in a matter of weeks. A strong mathematical result, by itself, can no
longer be taken as convincing evidence of a student’s independent
mathematical abilities."[1]

> Perhaps there are ways and means of getting talented new people involved
> via side-channel, though.
> 
> I did the 'eudyptula challenge' many years ago, which was a sort of boot
> camp for kernel developers (with a lot of 'are you patient enough' bits :)
> 
> That can't work in identical form anymore because of AI (sigh), but perhaps
> we can figure out some AI-proof version of this?
> 

Would it be worthwhile to organize some sort of informal discussion on what
such channels might be and how they can be organized in an LLM-resistant
fashion? It would be interesting and useful to share and collect ideas on
how the talent pipeline should take shape in the LLM-era, so that the community
can ensure, also in the future, that talented and motivated people are continued
to be brought in and not drowned out by slop or other unwanted hurdles, such as
having access to very expensive tooling (a concern that I share with Laurent.)

You and Ted have views on this; Shuah runs the kernel mentorship program; and I know
Greg also helps people get exposed to the kernel through various means. Then
there's GSoC and Outreachy, etc.

I guess a lot of these people will be at LSFMMBPF?

Best,
Jori.

[1]: https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/10/18/will-it-be-a-golden-age-or-a-dark-age-for-mathematics-and-science/#more-18496