There are language features of dynamic languages like python that prevent them from being compiled to machine code. That is to say, the compiler can’t know what

There are language features of dynamic languages like python that prevent them from being compiled to machine code. That is to say, the compiler can’t know what assembly to output from the code itself, it also has to know some type information which isn’t available until runtime. I would encourage you not to fight the classification of interpreted language as your primary argument. You will likely lose credibility with the listener before you have a chance to make any good points. You could for instance say “just because the reference implementation is slow doesn’t mean there is no hope for the language becoming fast”. There is some truth to the argument. JavaScript has become a reasonably fast language with all the engineering effort spent on engines for it. But I would also spend some time learning about what makes dynamic languages hard to compile. I think you will find that some features of the language must be dropped to achieve fully aot compilation. The classic example would be eval() which invokes an interpreter from inside the language, but there are usually other features.