2026-08-31 / Signal #5
AI crawlers are eating Linux: kernel.org spends more CPU on scrapers than on developers
“Linux is spending more electricity showing commits to AIs than to the people who write the kernel.”
The Story
git.kernel.org now spends more CPU rendering random git commits as HTML for AI scrapers than it spends on all legitimate access, including git clones. About 14 cores across five nodes do nothing but serve crawlers. Anubis proof-of-work still blocks ~66% of requests; the rest solve the challenge because pre-AI kernel history is gold for training. Legitimate traffic is estimated at ~2%.
Why It Matters
The open internet’s most important source code is being eaten alive by bots that refuse to git clone. Internet culture + builders + a sacred object (the Linux git history) under infestation.
Evidence
Konstantin Ryabitsev (kernel.org), “Creepy Crawlies,” 29 Aug 2026; huge HN thread.
Sources
Daily scan: 2026-08-31