E183: Why English Isn't a Programming Language - the BAML Story

Open Source Startup Podcast

This episode dives into why code quality still matters in the age of AI, and why English - no matter how good models get - won’t replace programming.

Our guest is Co-Founder of Boundary, Vaibhav Gupta, and he shares the journey behind BAML, a new programming language to write and manage AI logic. After 12 pivots and 3.5 years, the team realized something simple but powerful:
AI tools were evolving fast, but the code was ugly.

Most AI generated code was unnecessarily long and messy. For builders who viewed code as artistic expression, that was painful. Once they tried BAML, everything changed. It was clean, elegant - completely the opposite of AI slop.

It wasn’t an overnight success. It took nine months to reach ten users — but the early ones stayed because of thoughtful design:

• Easy model swapping

• Full visibility into every prompt and test case

• A workflow so simple that non-technical users (even lawyers!) could test code

BAML was built with a philosophy that code is the source of truth, not the docs.

The conversation touches on how LLM observability and thoughtfully designed code make BAML unique. It’s inspired by the same thinking that made React sticky - beauty and composability.

Pretty code, the founder believes, isn’t vanity - it’s a functional advantage:

• Fewer bugs

• Easier to reason about

• Friendlier for AI-generated systems