In early August 2026, Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman removed a 27-year-old driver for discontinued industrial hardware — not because it was broken, but because AI scanning systems had begun generating a steady stream of false findings from its dormant code. The decision had already been sanctioned by the hardware's manufacturer, Moxa, months prior; what AI provided was not wisdom, but friction — enough low-level noise to transform a deferred obligation into an immediate one. It is a quiet parable about how automated systems may reshape the economics of neglect, making inaction more