Rust

Overview

Rust is a systems programming language focused on performance, reliability, and memory safety. It is widely used for building low-level infrastructure, developer tools, runtimes, and performance-sensitive applications without relying on garbage collection. For AI Product Managers, Rust matters because it increasingly appears behind the scenes in products where speed, stability, and efficient resource usage directly affect user experience.

In the newsletter context, Rust shows up as the implementation language for two notable efforts: Cognition’s custom terminal rendering library for fast, responsive UI performance, and Jarred Sumner’s AI-assisted rewrite of Bun, highlighted by Thariq, which reportedly passes 99.8% of the existing test suite. Together, these examples position Rust as a practical enabler for ambitious product engineering work where AI is used to accelerate development but the end result still needs production-grade performance.

Key Developments

• 2026-04-28: Cognition was noted for building a custom terminal rendering library in Rust to deliver lightning-fast, snappy UI performance, including support for an original 1970s VT-100 terminal.
• 2026-05-11: Thariq highlighted Jarred Sumner’s AI-assisted rewrite of Bun in Rust, noting that it passes 99.8% of the existing test suite and framing it as evidence that teams could be more ambitious with AI-driven engineering.

Relevance to AI PMs

• Evaluate infrastructure choices for AI products: Rust is relevant when your product depends on fast local runtimes, terminals, developer tooling, or backend services where latency and efficiency matter.
• Assess AI-assisted engineering leverage: The Bun rewrite example shows how AI can help teams modernize or reimplement complex systems in Rust while preserving quality through test-suite validation.
• Prioritize user experience in performance-sensitive interfaces: Cognition’s terminal example shows how implementation choices in Rust can materially improve responsiveness in AI-native tools and agent experiences.

Related

• Cognition: Used Rust to build a custom terminal rendering library, illustrating Rust’s role in high-performance AI product interfaces.
• Bun: The JavaScript runtime targeted in an AI-assisted rewrite in Rust, showing Rust as an implementation choice for modern developer infrastructure.
• Jarred Sumner: Associated with the AI-assisted Bun rewrite, making Rust central to a high-profile systems engineering effort.
• Thariq: Highlighted the Bun rewrite and used it to argue for greater ambition in AI-assisted software development.