Logan Kilpatrick's AI Developer Advocacy

Table of content

Logan Kilpatrick leads product for Google AI Studio and the Gemini API at Google DeepMind. Before that, he ran developer relations at OpenAI during the ChatGPT explosion (2022-2024). His path there went through NASA (building lunar rover software) and Apple (training ML models).

The Core Philosophy

Kilpatrick’s worldview centers on agency and action:

“Most of the things I am most proud of have come from just doing the thing. Most people would rather ask questions, debate, etc.”

This isn’t motivational fluff—it’s operational. He treats most decisions as “two way doors” where you’re rewarded for taking initiative rather than waiting for perfect information.

On shipping:

“Shipping fast is required”
“Iteration speed often makes up for mistakes”
“Most things that stop you from shipping are made up”

The Human Value Thesis

Here’s where Kilpatrick diverges from typical AI doomerism or hype. He argues that AI actually increases human value:

“In a world of AI, the value of being human is increasing quickly. Humans want what other humans create—it’s biologically programmed into us. The value of authenticity by humans is on an exponential.”

This explains his approach to content: the “Around the Prompt” podcast he co-hosts features unfiltered conversations with AI practitioners. No scripts, no corporate messaging. Guests include Simon Willison, Jeremy Howard, Yohei Nakajima, and Eric Simons (Bolt.new).

Betting on Tools

Kilpatrick puts capital behind his beliefs. He’s invested in 50+ AI and developer tool startups, typically $100k-$300k per deal. The portfolio reads like a map of the AI tooling landscape:

Cursor — AI-first code editor
Cognition — autonomous software engineering (Devin)
Astral — Python tooling (ruff, uv)
Pydantic — Python data validation
Braintrust — AI evals platform
Stainless API — SDK generation

This isn’t passive angel investing. It’s active pattern recognition about which tools developers actually use.

The Google AI Studio Work

At DeepMind, Kilpatrick oversees the Gemini API developer experience. The google-gemini/cookbook repo he maintains has 16k+ stars—it’s the de facto resource for Gemini integration examples.

The focus is reducing friction: quickstarts in Python, JavaScript, Go, Java, and C#. Function calling, structured outputs, multimodal inputs. The API is positioned as “the fastest path from prompt to production.”

What Practitioners Can Learn

Stop debating, start doing. The cost of experimentation in AI is lower than the cost of analysis paralysis.
Put your name on things. Kilpatrick: “Most people won’t put their name out there, so they miss the value they create.”
Bet on tools that reduce friction. His investment pattern consistently favors developer experience improvements.
Human authenticity compounds. In a world where AI can generate anything, the signal value of human-created work goes up, not down.

Resources

logank.ai — personal site with beliefs and investment thesis
Around the Prompt — podcast with AI practitioners
google-gemini/cookbook — Gemini API examples
@OfficialLoganK — active on X