Elixir's Potential as the Premier Language for AI Development

In a recent talk, Chris McCord advocated for Elixir as the ideal language for building AI agents, countering the common notion that JavaScript is the best choice. By demonstrating the capabilities of Elixir through a practical project—a Slack clone—in conjunction with a tailored AGENTS.md file for AI training, McCord showcased how Elixir's structure aids LLMs in producing idiomatic code. He emphasized that Elixir's design, forged through the influence of Erlang and the BEAM VM, naturally aligns with the needs of modern AI applications. Furthermore, McCord highlighted Elixir's unified tools and cohesive ecosystem, particularly how they facilitate a more productive development experience compared to other languages like JavaScript. He believes that as AI's capabilities expand, Elixir is perfectly positioned to lead in the era of agentic AI and provide broader accessibility to developers and non-developers alike, thanks to tools like Tideway Web and Phoenix.New.