Canonical developer lays out some AI plans for Ubuntu Linux

AI in your Ubuntu Desktop? Eventually, it seems. Canonical will need to tread very carefully on this one but plans are being made for it.

In a detailed post written up by Jon Seager, the technical leader and software engineer working for Canonical as VP Engineering, the post goes over their current thoughts on it and some potential plans to expand how Canonical use AI and how it might be added to Ubuntu directly.

"The bottom line is that Canonical is ramping up its use of AI tools in a focused and principled manner that favours open weight models with license terms that feel most compatible with our values, combined with open source harnesses. AI features will be landing in Ubuntu throughout the next year as we feel that they’re of sufficient maturity and quality, with a bias toward local inference by default.

AI features in Ubuntu features will come in two forms: first as a means of enhancing existing OS functionality with AI models in the background, and latterly in the form of “AI native” features and workflows for those who want them."

Jon Seager

Unlike certain other companies, Canonical don't seem to be trying to force anything here. Seager mentions how they won't be measuring people by how much they use AI, but where it's being used effectively where it can be "controlled and reviewed".

Seager at least seems fully aware of the issues AI tools can cause, like slop pull requests to various open source projects, and hindering people's ability to actually learn if you're just getting an AI bot to do things for you. That said, Seager believes "LLMs to be an excellent learning tool" but you still need to "be skeptical and not blindly trust what comes out of the machine".

As for what to expect with Ubuntu and AI, the framework they're developing is split between "explicit and implicit AI features". With implicit AI being enhanceming system features like improved speech-to-text and text-to-speech as just one example. Whereas explicit AI would be more about "'agentic' workflows" noting that "Implicit AI features will improve what Ubuntu already does; explicit AI will be introduced as new features".

Plans are being made on how to "integrate agentic workflows into Ubuntu for those who want it in a way that feels tasteful, aligned with our user base and respectful of our privacy and security values". Seager believes Snap packages will help provide these features safely and securely.

So we're going to have to wait and see what type of AI fluff gets added to Ubuntu over the next year or two and beyond.