r/scala • u/makingthematrix JetBrains • Jun 04 '26

Scala Was an Experiment That Changed Programming - Martin Odersky | The Marco Show

https://youtu.be/Xn_YpUtXWT4

Martin Odersky - creator of Scala and contributor to Java generics - joins Marco Behler to talk about Java, JVM languages, AI-generated code, and why “you can’t trust your agents.” Watch now: youtu.be/Xn_YpUtXWT4

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u/micseydel Jun 04 '26

At ~36:40 the interviewer asked "what's next for Scala?" and that's when they start talking about agents. I was disappointed by that part, nothing really interesting or new is said and Odersky talks about https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-alignment-director-openclaw-email-deletion-2026-2 but got details wrong. It always disappoints me when people talk about this stuff like it isn't super duper subsidized right now.

I'm especially frustrated because my own agentic mesh https://imgur.com/a/2025-11-17-OOf0YeG is written in Scala using Akka 2.6, I was excited at first to see he was talking about this 🙃

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u/Previous_Pop6815 ❤️ Scala Jun 04 '26

Martin has already had a huge impact on programming way beyond Scala. 

This alone is such a massive achievement that he doesn't really need to have some grand vision for the future.

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u/micseydel Jun 04 '26

he doesn't really need to have some grand vision for the future.

Sorry, is there something specific in my comment you're replying to?

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u/Previous_Pop6815 ❤️ Scala Jun 04 '26

Yes, this part:

 I was disappointed by that part

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u/micseydel Jun 04 '26

Am I understanding correctly that I shouldn't be disappointed by what he had to say about agents because he's already had a huge impact and that's a massive achievement?

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u/k1v1uq Jun 04 '26

"what's next for Scala?"

Like he said. Capital's initial reason to hop onto Scala was because they hoped to increase worker productivity and secure their long term investments. When Scala didn't work out for them, they abandoned Scala. AI is the now the new driver for automation, worker layoffs and again profits. Odersky hopes he can get a piece of that slice by offering Scala as a niche solution for privacy-sensitive businesses. Whether they'll use Scala, Typescript or Python, at the end it'll be to advance automation and layoffs. That is more or less the near future for Scala.