Press start. Python's next generation.

Keynote for PyCon JP 2026

Press Start: Python's Next Generation

Python is leveling up. After three decades, the language keeps growing in speed, reach, and community — and the next generation of Python is arriving now.

In this keynote, we'll tour what's next. We'll look at real performance gains in modern Python, from free-threading to faster interpreters, and what they mean for your everyday code. We'll explore GPU-powered visualization that turns massive data into interactive, beautiful graphics. And we'll see how new AI workflows are changing how we write, test, and share code — with Python at the center.

But tools are only half the story. Behind every release are contributors, mentors, and communities around the world, including here in Japan, who make Python welcoming for the players who join next.

Whether you write Python for science, web, data, or fun, you'll leave with fresh ideas, practical next steps, and the confidence to press start on your own next level.

Transcript

1. K E Y N OT E Press Start: Python's Next Generation プレス・スタート：Python の次世代 Carol Willing PyCon JP · 2026 ▶ Tap to Start
2. おはようございます O H A Y Ō G O Z A I MA S U Good morning! Thank you for having me.
3. LV. 60 Player 1: Carol Wi ing • • • • • • Python core team and 3-term steering council member Jupyter core team and 2017 ACM Software System Award PSF Fellow, 2-term PSF board member PyLadies, pyOpenSci advisor, napari core team Interested in cognitive science, learning, and education ll Love empowering humans by scaling technology's impact
4. Python's next generation
5. I love games.
6. As a child, I played Atari video games. When I was 12 years old, I wrote code to play Breakout on an Apple.
7. • import pygame • Set up constants for game board • Create Paddle, Ball, Brick, Game • game.run() • Play! When I was 60 years old, I used pygame and Claude to write Breakout.
9. Try porting Breakout to Pyxel. Learn more at tomorrow's keynote with Takashi Kitao. 詳細は、明日行われる北尾隆氏の基調講演でご確認ください。
10. ? Why do we play games ? なぜ私たちはゲームをするのでしょうか？
11. ? Why do we play games ? なぜ私たちはゲームをするのでしょうか？ solve problems fun friends relaxation exploration achievement entertainment choice
12. tt Games help us become be er coders.
13. ll Games, like using Python, requires ski s.
14. Games teach us to adapt. We practice until we succeed. We can use AI tools to adapt and succeed.
15. Today's Quest Map 今日のクエストマップ 2 3 ★ Python Power-Ups Visualization Systems and AI Community Fast, flexible Python Massive data, interactive graphics New solutions with code The players behind it a l 1
16. Level 1 · レベル1 Python Power-Ups Pythonパワーアップ Faster performance and exibility improves everyday code. fl 1 / 3 levels
17. TRY 3.15 Insta uv and run Python in the terminal. uv python install 3.15 uv run python 3.15 python Fo r f re e - t h re a d e d b u i l d : uv run python 3.15t python - - - - ll https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/
18. TRY 3.15 What's New in 3.15 tt h ps://docs.python.org/3.15/
19. TRY 3.15 PEP 810 Explicit lazy imports for faster startup time
20. TRY 3.15 PEP 814 Add new built-in type frozendict immutable hashable
21. TRY 3.15 Statistical profiling profiling.sampling Stack is sampled periodically. Snapshots of the call stack are saved. Functions that consume signi cant CPU time will appear frequently in the collected samples. Di erent than the deterministic pro ler, profiling.tracing (cprofile) fi fi ff tt h ps://docs.python.org/3.15/library/profiling.sampling.html
22. TRY 3.15 More performance Free-threaded Python and stable ABI abi3t. Upgraded JIT compiler. PEP 803
23. TRY 3.15 O cial release for 3.15 is coming soon. Thanks Hugo van Kemenade for managing the 3.15 release. O cial release date is October 1, 2026. h ps://docs.python.org/3.15/ ffi ffi tt tt h ps://devguide.python.org/versions/
24. Python 3.15 is HPC ready for scaling.
25. Level 2 · レベル2 Visualizations 可視化 Massive data and interactive graphics accelerate research and understanding. 2 / 3 levels
26. napari is a fast, interactive viewer for multi-dimensional images. Supports numpy, zarr, and xarray. Used for microscopy and geospatial. https://napari.org/
27. PyVista Tetsuo Koyama is a PyVista and visualization expert. See his talk today.
28. fi VisPy is the current stable Python library for high-performance, interactive 2D and 3D scienti c visualization. It uses OpenGL to display large datasets and integrates with Python GUI and notebook environments.
29. datoviz WebGPU wasm https://datoviz.org/examples/webgpu/live.html?id=showcases_protein
30. Use pixi when working with GPUs. fl https://matthewfeickert-talks.github.io/reproducible-cuda-work ows-with-pixi-scipy-2026/
31. Level 3 · レベル3 Systems and AI システムとAI Use systems engineering to level up with AI tools. 3 / 3 levels
32. ? What's my view on AI? AIに対する私の見解はどのようなものでしょうか？ It's complicated. それは複雑です。
33. Complexity is caused by two things: dependencies and obscurity. John Ousterhout
34. The physical world is complex.
35. The physical world is complex.
36. The physical world is complex.
37. The physical world is complex.
38. The physical world is complex.
39. The physical world is complex.
40. The physical world is complex.
42. PyCon US Lightning Talk Manabu Terada Pragmatic system using AI to organize and find photos. https://github.com/pyconjp/pyconjp-image-search
43. Marimo pair An agent working side by side with a marimo notebook. h ps://marimo.io/pair h ps://marimo.io/blog/marimo-pair Agentic Data Science with Marimo Pair by Eric Ma h ps://youtube.com/watch?v=DvSxrCcfWFs tt tt tt tt h ps://ericmjl.github.io/blog/
44. Multimodal AI, Automation, and Robots https://www.airoa.org/ https://github.com/airoa-org/airopi-share https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25032 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.12583 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1808.10703 https://airec-waseda.jp/en/about_en/ https://www.sugano.mech.waseda.ac.jp/en/ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9e34yzvgo https://github.com/petercorke/robotics-toolbox-python
45. ★ Community コミュニティ The players behind it all. Pythonistas grow the language, the global community, and world impact.
46. Local, Regional, Global PyCon JP Association https://www.pycon.jp/ Python Asia Organization https://pythonasia.org/ Python Software Foundation https://python.org
48. Level up your Python ski s. ll conference.pyladies.com/about
49. ll Ca to Action
50. 2023 NEC C&C Prize Guido van Rossum Thank you Guido. I fulfi ll tt h ps://www.candc.or.jp/en/2023/ceremony.html
51. Introducing Satyrn AI https://satyrn.ai/
52. https://satyrn.ai/
53. Introducing Satyrn AI Jupyterのようでありながら、エージェント向けのもの Satyrnは「エージェントのためのJupyter」です。ローカルAIの活用を成功に導くサブエージェントやツールを構築す るためのプロジェクトであり、私たち自身の手で、私たちのために開発されています。 https://satyrn.ai/
54. Introducing Satyrn AI オープンソース 地域所有の ローカルファースト Koudai Aono (PEP 750 co-author) is doing work on the Satyrn Engine. https://satyrn.ai/blog/2026/zen-and-compass/
55. We're taking this journey and exploring together. We hope you wi join us and support our mission to make AI systems more accessible, trusted, and humane for everyone. AIシステムを、すべての人にとってより利用しやすく、信頼でき、人間味のあるものにする ll ll Carol Wi ing
56. Choose your game. Create your game. Share the game with friends.
58. Ready, player? Press start. 準備はいいか、プレイヤー？ スタートボタンを押せ。 ll Slides: speakerdeck.com/wi ingc
59. Links Willing Consulting willingconsulting.com GitHub @willingc Mastodon @willingc LinkedIn in/carolwilling PyCon JP · 2026