James Landay

Joining @Stanford CS & returning home to CA-Hard to leave NYC & @Cornell_Tech, but excited to help @StanfordHCI & Design to the next level!

At @NVIDIAGTC, @StanfordHAI's James @Landay said we're amid a major shift in human-computer interaction. Current text/voice AI is "just a blip" and he envisions a future of multimodal agents that anticipate user needs through voice, gesture, and context: nvidia.com/en-us/on-deman…

@klroos @StanfordHAI Great essay Kirsten. Spot on! @klroos

@StanfordHAI @landay This is the right question. substack.com/home/post/p-18…

At the AI+Education Summit, @StanfordHAI Co-Director James @Landay argues that shaping education for the next generation requires addressing a fundamental question: What competencies will define student success in the age of AI? Watch the full discussion: youtube.com/watch?v=JWKXCv…

@karpathy @Montreal_IA “You’re not typing computer code into an editor like the way things were since computers were invented” — there were no editors fur the first 15-20 years.

It is hard to communicate how much programming has changed due to AI in the last 2 months: not gradually and over time in the "progress as usual" way, but specifically this last December. There are a number of asterisks but imo coding agents basically didn’t work before December and basically work since - the models have significantly higher quality, long-term coherence and tenacity and they can power through large and long tasks, well past enough that it is extremely disruptive to the default programming workflow. Just to give an example, over the weekend I was building a local video analysis dashboard for the cameras of my home so I wrote: “Here is the local IP and username/password of my DGX Spark. Log in, set up ssh keys, set up vLLM, download and bench Qwen3-VL, set up a server endpoint to inference videos, a basic web ui dashboard, test everything, set it up with systemd, record memory notes for yourself and write up a markdown report for me”. The agent went off for ~30 minutes, ran into multiple issues, researched solutions online, resolved them one by one, wrote the code, tested it, debugged it, set up the services, and came back with the report and it was just done. I didn’t touch anything. All of this could easily have been a weekend project just 3 months ago but today it’s something you kick off and forget about for 30 minutes. As a result, programming is becoming unrecognizable. You’re not typing computer code into an editor like the way things were since computers were invented, that era is over. You're spinning up AI agents, giving them tasks *in English* and managing and reviewing their work in parallel. The biggest prize is in figuring out how you can keep ascending the layers of abstraction to set up long-running orchestrator Claws with all of the right tools, memory and instructions that productively manage multiple parallel Code instances for you. The leverage achievable via top tier "agentic engineering" feels very high right now. It’s not perfect, it needs high-level direction, judgement, taste, oversight, iteration and hints and ideas. It works a lot better in some scenarios than others (e.g. especially for tasks that are well-specified and where you can verify/test functionality). The key is to build intuition to decompose the task just right to hand off the parts that work and help out around the edges. But imo, this is nowhere near "business as usual" time in software.

A big shoutout to @StanfordEng's Terry Winograd on his election to the National Academy of Engineering, one of engineering's highest honors! Hear his insights on AI's challenges & possibilities in our recent conversation on generative frictions: hai.stanford.edu/events/generat…

The Brutalists 99percentinvisible.org/episode/617-th… Would be nice if @99percentinvible they admitted how bad these buildings are for health and wellness based on research.

Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come.  This is one of them.

🔎 @StanfordHAI is seeking a temporary Digital Marketing Assistant! The ideal candidate must have keen attention to details, excellent time management, and strong communication skills. Check out our career openings here: hai.stanford.edu/careers

There is nothing patriotic about what is occurring on Capitol Hill. This is 3rd world style anti-American anarchy.

Most-read story in 2025: 41% of AI implementation is "unwanted or impossible." See the data on what workers actually wanted: hai.stanford.edu/news/what-work…

OpenAI is ClosedAI. Meta abandoned FAIR. What we need to do…

What better place to explore the impact of AI than the tranquil setting of Stanford Sierra Camp? @StanfordHAI’s executive education program covers the latest research, practical applications & human-centered AI frameworks. Early-bird pricing ends Nov. 14. hai.stanford.edu/education/stan…

The tide of openness in AI is receding – and with it, the foundation of scientific progress. Universities must reclaim AI research for the public good with a new model for team science. hai.stanford.edu/news/universit…

A nice @Stanford news report on how university research is essential for understanding AI and sharing these insights openly with the world. humsci.stanford.edu/feature/three-…

How do you prepare executives for a technology that's evolving daily? AI is dynamic, complex, and constantly changing, so leaders need education that's equally adaptive. Learn more about our custom executive education program: hai.stanford.edu/education/cust…

Great study opportunity for SF Bay Area-based Japanese language learners.

Why AI is likely to change jobs rather than kill them sfexaminer.com/news/technolog… via @sfexaminer

Since 2018, @StanfordHAI has been making a significant impact in advancing research at Stanford. One of its mechanisms is through the Hoffman-Yee Research Grants, designed to launch “asteroid shot” ideas that address some of our biggest challenges. hai.stanford.edu/news/stanford-…

Why do AI models often fail in safety-critical scenarios? Researchers investigate a statistical phenomenon called “accuracy on the line.” Read about their work on the @StanfordHAI blog: hai.stanford.edu/news/better-be…

Thanks for having me!

Again, AI chat bots/LLMs are dangerous for mental health therapy.