The New Stack Podcast From Physics to the Future: Brian Granger on Project Jupyter in the Age of AI
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Nov 13, 2025 
Brian Granger, Senior Principal Technologist at AWS and co-creator of Project Jupyter, shares insights into Jupyter’s beginnings from physics principles and its evolution in the AI landscape. He discusses how AI is transforming development processes, enabling tasks like rewriting Jupyter Server in minutes. Granger emphasizes the need for sustainable governance and collaboration while navigating the challenges of AI contributions. He also highlights Jupyter's role in fostering human-centered research and education, stressing the importance of maintaining its mission in the age of AI.
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Long Road From Idea To Notebook
- Brian Granger and Fernando Pérez spent years building the original IPython notebook to bring a Mathematica-like notebook experience to Python.
- Their shared physics background and late-night discussions seeded a project that took from 2004 to 2011 to complete.
Modularity As A Lasting Design Choice
- Granger credits Jupyter's success to designing small, modular building blocks like the notebook format and kernel protocol.
- That modular architecture let Jupyter scale beyond its original use cases into broader data science and AI workflows.
Fix Governance Early
- Address community governance early rather than waiting until the project grows large and corporate users arrive.
- Do invest in governance structures before informal hobby-style management becomes unsustainable.