Greg Brockman Dishes on How AI 'Vibe Coding' Is Changing — and Taking the Fun Out of — Engineering

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman shares how AI-driven 'vibe coding' is shaking up software engineering—streamlining the grind but also stealing some of the joy for human coders.

🤖 Greg Brockman on the Ups and Downs of AI-Powered "Vibe Coding"

OpenAI’s cofounder and president, Greg Brockman, recently dropped some real talk about the future of coding on Stripe’s "Cheeky Pint" podcast. Spoiler alert: AI is getting really good at writing code, but it’s also cramping some of the fun vibes for human engineers.

🎢 The Tale of Vibe Coding: The Good, the Bad, and the Fun-

What’s this "vibe coding" buzz all about?

Quick refresher: "vibe coding" is the snappy nickname OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy gave to the rising trend of using AI tools like Microsoft's Copilot, Cursor, and Windsurf to generate code. Whether you’re building websites, developing games, or just slicing through some tricky programming tasks, AI’s got your back.

Brockman’s take: AI steals drudgery but also the fun

"What we're going to see is AIs taking more and more of the drudgery, more of this like pain, more of the parts that are not very fun for humans," Brockman says.

And here’s the kicker: some of the "fun parts" of coding—yes, there are some!—have already been nabbed by AI. So while your AI buddy will take on the boring, repetitive, or painstaking work, it’s also kind of swiping the juicy bits of creative problem-solving and tinkering that engineers secretly love.

Humans stuck with quality control and deployment

Brockman paints a picture where folks are mainly reviewing and pushing AI-generated code. Not exactly a party. He calls it "not fun at all," and who can blame him? Letting AI spill out code is one thing, but catching its quirks and bugs is the reality check for human engineers.

🚀 Why all the hype around vibe coding?

  • Skyrocketing usage: This year, vibe coding has gone from curiosity to cornerstone for both novice programmers and seasoned pros.
  • Shaping Big Tech hiring: Companies like Visa, Reddit, DoorDash, and many startups explicitly want engineers experienced with AI assistants like Cursor and Bolt.
  • Startup revolution: Y Combinator's CEO Gary Tan predicts vibe coding could let teams of 10 do what used to take 50 or 100 engineers—mega efficiency!

💡 Fun fact: Vibe coding isn’t just a tool; it’s turning into a skill that’s rapidly becoming must-have in the software engineering playbook.

⚠️ The critics have their say

Not everyone is popping champagne. Some veteran voices in tech urge caution:

  • Bob McGrew (ex-OpenAI Chief Research Officer): He warns that vibe coding prototypes might be cool demos, but the final product often needs humans to "rewrite it from scratch." Because, honestly, if you don’t understand the AI-generated codebase, it’s more of a liability than an asset.

  • GitHub’s CEO, Thomas Dohmke: Points out vibe coding could slow developers down, especially if you’re forced to explain something in natural language that you could write in code in seconds.

"Basically replacing something that I can do in three seconds with something that might potentially take three minutes or even longer," Dohmke says.

So, is vibe coding a magic wand or a double-edged sword? It looks like it's a bit of both.

🌟 What’s next?

Brockman is optimistic:

  • He believes AI will keep improving beyond just drudgery.
  • He dreams of a "full AI coworker," a bot that can handle your delegated coding tasks with little human babysitting.

Until then, the coding world is in an interesting transitional dance — where AI takes the wheel for the boring stuff, but human creativity and critical thinking remain irreplaceable.

🔍 Who should care?

  • Engineers & Developers: To stay ahead of the curve and understand how AI tools might change your daily grind.
  • Tech Hiring Managers: To grasp how hiring priorities are shifting toward AI coding fluency.
  • Startups & VCs: Because vibe coding is reshaping the resource game for software building — fewer engineers, more AI-assisted hustle.

🛠️ Tools in the mix

Some familiar names helping fuel this vibe coding revolution:

  • Microsoft's Copilot
  • Cursor
  • Windsurf
  • Emerging AI code generators like Bolt

These aren’t just productivity enhancers; they’re redefining what it means to code in 2025.

💬 Parting thoughts

AI is here to take the wheel on the mundane, but don’t expect it to replace human sparks anytime soon. Vibe coding might change software engineering forever, but it also reminds us that the best tech is a collaboration between brains and bots.

So if you’re an engineer feeling a bit of FOMO for that lost “fun” coding, fear not — the landscape is evolving, not vanishing. And who knows? The next generation of AI coworkers might just bring back the fun in ways we can’t yet imagine.

Stay curious, keep coding (with a little AI magic on the side)! ✨

Source: Business Insider