Why is a 'slow' language the one everyone uses for AI? | Programming Languages · Ep 9

Python has a reputation. It's easy to read, easy to learn, and slow. Yet, by GitHub's 2025 count, it's the main language for new AI projects, and AI is some of the most demanding computing there is. So how can a slow language run some of the most demanding software there is? And is it really slow at all? Episode 9 of Programming Languages from Aussie Science Clips: The languages, frameworks and tools behind every app and website, one question at a time: what each one is, why it exists, and why people argue about it. Full transcript, sources and every episode: https://aussiescience.com/programming... CHAPTERS 0:00 The question 0:26 A Christmas project 0:52 Posted to the world 1:21 Readable on purpose 1:51 Readability counts 2:21 So how slow? 2:49 Every number is an object 3:14 Questions at every step 3:53 Numbers in a row 4:27 Where the loop runs 5:00 The chef and the kitchen 5:42 AI is a lot of multiplication 6:16 Why AI chose Python 6:52 Python gives the orders 7:30 What Python costs 7:56 Where the reputation is fair 8:25 Wanting both 8:49 Python gets faster 9:17 Where it stands 10:05 The slow part isn't the work NEXT: Why is so much still built on a 50-year-old language? SOURCES 1. Jake VanderPlas, "Why Python is Slow: Looking Under the Hood", Pythonic… — https://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2014/0... 2. GitHub Blog, "Octoverse: A new developer joins GitHub every second as AI leads… — https://github.blog/news-insights/oct... 3. Python Software Foundation, "General Python FAQ" (What is Python?; Why was Python… — https://docs.python.org/3/faq/general... 4. Wikipedia, "Guido van Rossum" (accessed 7 October 2026) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_v... 5. Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, "About CWI" ("the national research institute for… — https://www.cwi.nl/en/about/ 6. Guido van Rossum, "A Brief Timeline of Python", The History of Python blog, 20 January… — https://python-history.blogspot.com/2... 7. This episode's own check, `calc.py` (run 2026-10-07 on an Apple M1 Mac: CPython… 8. Python Software Foundation, "Design and History FAQ" (indentation; how lists are… — https://docs.python.org/3/faq/design.... 9. Guido van Rossum, Barry Warsaw, Alyssa Coghlan, "PEP 8 – Style Guide for Python Code" — https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/ 10. Tim Peters, "PEP 20 – The Zen of Python" — https://peps.python.org/pep-0020/ 11. NumPy documentation, "What is NumPy?" — https://numpy.org/doc/stable/user/wha... 12. Python Language Reference, "Data model: Objects, values and types" — https://docs.python.org/3/reference/d... 13. Python/C API Reference, "Common Object Structures" (PyObject) — https://docs.python.org/3/c-api/struc... 14. Python Standard Library, "sys" (sys.getsizeof) — https://docs.python.org/3/library/sys... 15. Python Software Foundation, "What's New In Python 3.11" (Faster CPython) — https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.... 16. Python Software Foundation, "Glossary" (bytecode, virtual machine, global interpreter… — https://docs.python.org/3/glossary.html 17. V8 team, "Sparkplug: a non-optimizing JavaScript compiler", v8.dev, 27 May 2021… — https://v8.dev/blog/sparkplug 18. Charles R. Harris, K. Jarrod Millman, Stéfan J. van der Walt et al., "Array… — https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158... 19. NVIDIA, "Matrix Multiplication Background User's Guide", Deep Learning Performance… — https://docs.nvidia.com/deeplearning/... 20. Adam Paszke, Sam Gross, Francisco Massa et al., "PyTorch: An Imperative Style,… — https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.01703 21. NVIDIA, "CUDA Programming Guide", §1.1 Introduction ("In 2006, NVIDIA introduced the… — https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-pro... 22. Jeff Bezanson, Stefan Karpinski, Viral B. Shah, Alan Edelman, "Why We Created Julia",… — https://julialang.org/blog/2012/02/wh... 23. Python Software Foundation, "What's New In Python 3.14" (released 7 October 2025;… — https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.... 24. Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, Technology — https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/... …full list of all 25 sources in the pinned comment. HOW THIS WAS MADE Researched and scripted with AI assistance, then fact-checked claim by claim against the sources above by a separate AI pass. Narration is two synthetic Inworld voices. Diagrams are drawn in code (Manim); atmospheric images are AI-generated (FLUX) and are illustrations, not footage. No real person is depicted. Spotted an error? Tell us in the comments and we'll correct it.