Iconic PlayStation hacker and homebrew developer Andy ‘TheFlow0’ Nguyen has abandoned the ongoing PS5 Linux project due to the rise of AI vibe-coders in open-source spaces.
Nguyen, who famously created the first kernel exploit for the PlayStation Vita, has spent over a decade creating exploits and homebrew for PlayStation systems. As one of the leaders behind the ongoing PS5 Linux project, which brought modern PC gaming to the console, the developer was also bringing the full Linux OS experience to Sony’s PS5 with miraculous results.
In an update on social media, the modder announced that they would be “stepping away from the PS5 scene” as well as ending their work on PS5 Linux. “After pouring my heart and months of my life into it, including plans to finish PS5 Pro support and release in 2027, it’s all down the sink,” they said.
Nguyen, like many other homebrew developers recently, explained that they are ending the project due to the rise of AI vibe-coders in open-source spaces. Recently, brilliant PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 announced a ban on vibe coding participants due to the fact that vibe-coders in open-source spaces are submitting code that they do not actually understand.
In Nguyen’s words, “the scene used to be a group of highly talented researchers, but now it is just a bunch of noobs using LLMs and writing hacks they don’t even understand”. Additionally, it seems that vibe-coders, or “slop kiddies” as the modder dubbed them, used AI to detect a bug that they were using to crack consoles, and reported it to Sony for a bounty.
“Slop kiddies found the only hypervisor bug left, which I had also found a while ago, and decided to report to Sony,” the modder said on social media. “I asked them to at least wait for GTA 6 to come out so that people would have the opportunity to legally purchase the game and also enjoy linux. They agreed to wait, but not a day passed and they decided to waste it instead.”
With this in mind, it seems that the progress on PS5 Linux for consoles on newer OS versions may have been ruined by the reporting of this bug. This means that the last version of PS5 Linux to be helmed by the modder is the currently available Version 2.5 which supports PS5 Phat and Slim console running 3.00-7.61 firmwares.
isnt this proof that AI security scans AREN'T useless? They found a legit exploit that a skilled human hacker found but didnt disclose
This is all more of a human problem than an LLM problem.
You wouldnt reject a LLM assisted patch sent by Linus Torvalds, or label him a skop kiddie
Idiots using LLMs and submitting slop is a human problem, not proof that LLM coding tools suck
people already spammed the fuck out of him for his actual stance on AI so yea people would absolutely call him that.
I think it's pretty obvious that they're complaining about people who slop with no understanding and not merely saying LLM sucks, because LLM literally propel the script kiddie into the main scene without them understand a single shit they do, and merely in for the money not passion.
Then I'm sure this project will be forked by slop kiddies and go on to be very successful!
I think people should try to start thinking about this stuff in terms of what assumptions need to change, rather than how it contributes to pro-AI or anti-AI narratives. If LLMs can automate discovery of exploits, that means knowledge of them is easily accessible and that whole group of exploits is going to just be off the table unless the software maintainer really doesn't give a shit about fixing them.
Making this about the moral failings of "slop kiddies" misses the point, if there is little to no special sauce on top of the LLM itself then some Sony employee could have done this and probably will in the future.