Michigan prof creates Python-like Jac language for AI agents

Most programming languages were written for human programmers, but that's about to change. University of Michigan professor Jason Mars has developed an academically ambitious language called Jac, and a runtime called Jaseci, that treats AI and AI agents as first-class entities.

Mars demonstrated the language and runtime in a talk at the All Things Open conference, held in Raleigh, North Carolina, this week.

The tools we use to create software – everything from programming languages to build toolchains – were made for human consumption. They were created before generative AI and are ill-fitted to understand agentic needs.

Currently, agents are drowning in polyglot complexity, he argued. "We're not using these tools anymore. We're using the agents, and the agents are using those tools. So I don't want new tools, but I want tools [for] my agents," he told the audience.

In his talk, Mars cited Jarred Sumner, creator of the Bun framework, who spent $165,000 in Anthropic tokens to convert …