The future of AI in Ubuntu

Jon Seager, VP engineering for Canonical, has postedan update on "what Canonical and Ubuntu will do (or not) toincorporate AI" that explains what part AI will play in the futureof the company and its distribution.

The bottom line is that Canonical is ramping up its use of AI toolsin a focused and principled manner that favours open weight modelswith license terms that feel most compatible with our values, combinedwith open source harnesses. AI features will be landing in Ubuntuthroughout the next year as we feel that they're of sufficientmaturity and quality, with a bias toward local inference bydefault.

AI features in Ubuntu features will come in two forms: first as ameans of enhancing existing OS functionality with AI models in thebackground, and latterly in the form of "AI native" features andworkflows for those who want them.

This year Canonical has begun a more deliberate push towardeducation and developing competence with AI tools. We are not settingshallow metrics on token usage, or percentages of code written withAI, but rather incentivising engineers to experiment and understandwhere AI tools add value. Rather than force a single early-choice AIstack, we're incentivising teams to each pick 'something different'and go deep, so we learn more as an org in the next six months.