Greg Brockman on Vibe Coding: When AI Takes the Fun Out of Engineering

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman shares candid insights on how 'vibe coding'—AI-assisted programming—is reshaping engineering, taking away some of the joy while leaving humans with the less glamorous quality control tasks.

🎧 Vibe Coding: The AI Revolution Where Fun Hits Pause?

🧑‍💻 What’s up with vibe coding?

Imagine your AI sidekick writing code for you. Sounds dreamy, right? Well, OpenAI’s cofounder and president, Greg Brockman, recently dropped some real talk on the Cheeky Pint podcast about how this game-changing AI coding—lovingly dubbed "vibe coding" by fellow OpenAI alum Andrej Karpathy—is shaking up the software engineering world.

But here’s the twist: it’s already sucking some of the fun out of engineering. Yep, the parts coders used to geek out on are getting automated away, leaving humans with the quality control, review, and deployment (basically the parts nobody really loves).

“What we're going to see is AIs taking more and more of the drudgery... more of the parts that are not very fun for humans,” Brockman said.

He’s hopeful, though, envisioning a future with a "full AI coworker" handling delegated tasks so engineers can focus on what really tickles their passion.

🔍 What exactly is vibe coding?

In 2025, vibe coding exploded. Both rookie and seasoned programmers are jumping on tools like:

  • Microsoft Copilot
  • Cursor
  • Windsurf

These AI-powered gems help you whip up code, create games, and even design websites from scratch. It’s no longer sci-fi; the AI codewriter is your new best buddy.

💡 Fun fact:

The startup world is buzzing with this—Y Combinator’s CEO Garry Tan even predicted vibe coding would slash engineering teams by a huge margin. Think teams of 10 vibe coders replacing what once took “50 or 100” engineers.

🚀 AI coding skills = hot commodity

Visa, Reddit, DoorDash, and a slew of startups? They’re all looking for vibe coding experience. It’s officially a must-have skill, with job listings flaunting requirements like:

  • Familiarity with AI code generators like Cursor and Bolt
  • Experience in vibe coding workflows

So, if you’re on the job hunt or want to future-proof your dev career—this is your cue to learn the ropes.

🤔 But is it all sunshine and rainbows?

Hold your applause. Some industry veterans think vibe coding’s hype glosses over real risks:

  • Bob McGrew, ex-Chief Research Officer at OpenAI, warns that while PMs can build "cool prototypes," engineers often have to "rewrite from scratch." Why? Because AI-written code can be a liability if the devs don’t fully understand it.

  • GitHub’s CEO, Thomas Dohmke, points out a potential slowdown: imagine explaining code fixes to AI in plain English when you already know the programming syntax—turning a 3-second fix into a multi-minute chore. Oof.

🧐 Food for thought:

Are AI-assisted outputs assets or liabilities? The jury's still out, and the human touch remains vital.

🌐 What this means for engineers and startups

If you’re an engineer, vibe coding means:

  • Less grunt work (yay!)
  • More time reviewing and refining (meh...)
  • Need to adapt and work alongside AI tools (double yay!)

For startups and investors, vibe coding slashes costs and accelerates development, but it also shifts what it means to be a "skilled engineer" in 2025.

📝 TL;DR

  • Vibe coding is AI-assisted coding, growing fast with tools like Copilot and Cursor.
  • Greg Brockman warns it removes some of the fun parts of coding and leaves humans with quality control.
  • The skill is becoming essential in tech job markets.
  • Some experts caution it can create liabilities and actually slow down seasoned engineers.

💬 Final thoughts

Vibe coding is like getting a powerful new power tool in your engineering workshop—super helpful but requires skill to wield well. Instead of replacing engineers, it’s shifting the creative and critical parts of your job. So buckle up, embrace the AI partner, but don’t forget your human superpowers.

Have you jumped on the vibe coding bandwagon yet? Or are you keeping one foot firmly in old-school coding land? Either way, the future is bright (and a bit quirky)!


Happy coding (or vibe coding)! 🤖✨