Best programming language for coding with AI agents | Peter Steinberger and Lex Fridman

Quick Overview

The best programming language for coding with AI agents is highly dependent on the specific task, but Rust is highly regarded for its performance and ecosystem, while Python and TypeScript are also strong contenders depending on deployment environments and agent complexity.

Key Points: The speaker (Peter Steinberger) recently attended many iOS conferences because his background is in that area, but now he is pivoting towards AI agents. The speaker notes that while he used to build mockups in Swift/SwiftUI, he does not like the syntax of Go, which he used previously for agents. For building the core logic of AI agents, Rust is considered a really good choice due to its performance and ability to handle low-level system integration efficiently. Python is excellent for general knowledge tasks in AI and is often used for the model direction/inference part, but it is not ideal for deployment on Windows or for high-performance agent logic. For web-based agents, the combination of JavaScript/TypeScript is strong, especially considering Atwood's Law (any application that can be written in JavaScript will eventually be written in JavaScript). The speaker found that building agents in Go made it difficult to deploy on Windows, contrasting with Rust which handles cross-platform deployment better. The TIOBE Index for February 2026 shows Python at #1 (21.81%), followed by C (11.05%) and C++ (8.55%), with Go ranked 16th (1.23%) and showing a decline.

Context: This segment features a discussion between Lex Fridman and Peter Steinberger on the Lex Fridman Podcast, focusing on the selection of optimal programming languages for developing modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents. Steinberger, who has a background in iOS development, shares his evolving perspective on which languages offer the best balance of performance, ecosystem support, and deployment flexibility for agent-centric software development, contrasting languages like Go, Python, Rust, and TypeScript.

Detailed Analysis