Vibe coding
Vibe coding is an approach to programming with AI where you give in the "vibe" of the AI, accept its growing power, and ignore the details of the code itself.[1] Vibe coding relies on AI tools such as Replit Agent or Cursor Composer that build on large language models from companies including OpenAI or Anthropic.[2] The practice defies the belief in the software industry that software engineering demands great skill.[2]
Conception
Computer scientist Andrej Karpathy, a co-founder of OpenAI and former AI leader at Tesla, coined the term in February 2025.[1][2] He described how he interacts with the AI passively, by talking to the AI using voice recognition technology such as SuperWhisper, and allowing the AI deal with all the details. For example, he asks the AI to perform tasks such as including padding on a sidebar. When errors arise, he simply copies them into the system without further explanation. He said: "It's not really coding - I just see things, say things, run things, and copy-paste things, and it mostly works."[2] Karpathy concedes that vibe coding is imperfect: sometimes AI tools cannot repair bugs, and then he must make changes until the problem is resolved.[1]
Reception
Business Insider described vibe coding as a new buzzword in Silicon Valley.[2]
A user on Twitter commended comprehensive adoption of AI coding, while noting that some developers still boast about writing their code by hand.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d "What is 'vibe coding'? Former Tesla AI director Andrej Karpathy defines a new era in AI-driven development". The Times of India. 2025-03-02. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e Chowdhury, Hasan; Mann, Jyoti (13 February 2025). "Silicon Valley's next act: bringing 'vibe coding' to the world". Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-03-03.