A developer successfully created a FreeBSD kernel module for the Broadcom BCM4350 Wi-Fi chip in a 2016 MacBook Pro using AI assistance. The laptop, suffering from a 'flexgate' display issue, had been sitting unused until the developer decided to experiment with FreeBSD 15 during the holiday season. The project began after discovering FreeBSD lacks native support for this chip.

The initial approach involved porting Linux's brcmfmac driver code through FreeBSD's LinuxKPI compatibility layer, but this proved messy and ineffective. After watching Armin Ronacher's experience with AI coding agents, the developer shifted strategy. They used AI to generate a comprehensive 11-chapter specification document detailing how the driver interacts with the BCM4350 firmware, then built a clean-room implementation from scratch.

Working with Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex models, the developer iterated through multiple sessions, testing the driver in a virtualized environment with the Wi-Fi device passed through from the host. After numerous builds, crashes, and refinements, the project yielded a working FreeBSD kernel module that enables Wi-Fi functionality on the otherwise unsupported MacBook Pro hardware. The success demonstrates AI's potential for complex systems programming tasks when properly guided through specification and iterative development.