AI is revolutionizing coding, making life easier for developers everywhere. But before you hand over the reins entirely to AI-generated 'vibe coding,' let's unpack the risks, the reality, and where this trend truly shines.

🚀 Why I’m All In on AI — But Vibe Coding? Not So Fast!

By Giorgi Kobaidze — June 24, 2025

AI and coding: a match made in tech heaven? Absolutely! But hold your keyboards, friend, because there’s a new buzzword crashing the party — vibe coding. And while the name sounds chill, I've got some cold water to pour on this hype. Buckle up for a thoughtful stroll through the promise and pitfalls of AI-powered coding.

🧠 AI Is Awesome — Here’s Why I’m a Fan

First off: I love AI. Like, really love it. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are game changers. Imagine being a junior dev back in 2017, scavenging Stack Overflow for hours searching for answers (fun fact: it could be an ordeal worthy of a hero’s journey). If only I’d had AI back then — code that used to take all day could be cracked in minutes.

Humans chase convenience, efficiency, and streamlining complexity — AI helps us get there faster and smarter. And yes, this means more time sipping coffee while your AI copilots do some heavy lifting. ☕🚀

🚌 Failing Code, Cold Buses, and Why Trying Matters

Some memories are bittersweet. I once posted questions to Stack Overflow only to be met with... radio silence. Worse, downvoted and locked out for asking what felt like legit questions. It was bleak, late-night bus rides and lost confidence included.

But real coding is more than just shipping working code. It’s the struggle, the bugs, the “what the heck just happened?!” moments that give meaning to the craft. You learn, you grow, you vibe — and AI can’t replace that journey, even if it can speed you through parts of it.

🎭 So, What’s Up with the Name “Vibe Coding”?

Let’s unpack the name because, well, it’s... confusing.

Vibe: a mood, an atmosphere, a feeling.
Coding: writing sequences of instructions computers can follow.

Where’s the vibe, and where’s the coding? To me, good vibes come from the deep dive — the mess, exploration, failure, and eventual mastery. Vibe coding, as it’s sometimes pitched, often means telling AI vaguely what you want and letting it spit out code — zero learning curve, zero exploration.

🎢 The Real Vibe Is the Journey, Not the Shortcut

Coding vibe isn’t about skipping steps; it’s about the emotional rollercoaster — getting stuck, breaking things, loving those "aha!" moments. Real growth happens when you wrestle with ideas and code.

When AI just cranks out code, where’s the personal growth? That’s not coding, it’s more like approving ready-made code slices. I'm not saying AI’s output is bad — it can be incredible — but letting it do all the thinking for you? Nope, not for me.

⏳ Flashback: Vibe Coding in the 1980s? Imagine That!

Picture yourself in 1981 with a job ad for a “Vibe Coder” — no actual coding skills needed, just tell Marcus, the guy who writes the real code, what to do. You’re basically a manager, not a maker.

Sounds like a sci-fi dystopia, or a Black Mirror episode? Maybe. It misses the point of learning and owning the craft.

🧐 Abstraction Overload: When Less Control Makes You Nervous

Modern programming languages already do a great job abstracting the messy machine code into human-friendly syntax. Python, C#, and friends make code clear, predictable, and debuggable.

But vibe coding adds a fuzzy layer where AI-generated code might change every time you ask — unlike a compiler that’s consistent and dependable. That unpredictability could be a recipe for chaos, bugs, and lots of debugging headaches.

⚠️ Trusting AI Too Much? The Slippery Slope

Warning: Blindly trusting AI to generate production code can be a disaster. Remember the infamous Cursor project built with zero hand-written code? Users quickly found loopholes, and chaos ensued.

Smart engineering takes care and precision. AI can help, but shipping unchecked AI code to production? That’s rolling the dice.

🔐 Security Risks Are Real

AI won’t magically know which data is secret, which endpoints need protection, or that you shouldn’t be logging user passwords in plaintext. Novice users trusting AI blindly risk exposing sensitive info and creating attack vectors.

That’s why vibe coding without deep developer experience can lead to disastrous security holes.

👷‍♂️ Real Engineers Will Always Be Needed

Software grows complex fast. When you hit walls, AI might not help — sometimes the answer lurks deep in the docs or in a GitHub issue discussion.

Someone's gotta read, understand, and fix the tangled mess — and spoiler: AI-generated codebases can be a nightmare to maintain. Vibe coding can pile up technical debt faster than you can say "refactor."

🌍 Sustainability: The Hidden Cost of Vibe Coding

Sam Altman once joked about how saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT costs OpenAI tens of millions. Sounds funny, but AI’s energy footprint is no joke.

With over 100 million daily users and a billion messages a day, AI models consume gigawatt-hours of electricity. Vibe coding encourages an always-on, generate-regenerate approach — pushing energy consumption sky-high and increasing carbon emissions.

Coding should be smart and efficient — this trend might need a rethink for everyone's planet's sake.

🎉 Where Does Vibe Coding Actually Make Sense?

Okay, it’s not all doom and gloom. Here’s where vibe coding truly shines:

Boilerplate Generation: Need to quickly spin up a template project? AI can be your best friend here, saving time on repetitive setups.
Demo Projects: Need a quick prototype to wow a client? AI can whip up something fast to showcase ideas without the blood, sweat, and tears.
Bridging Engineers and Non-Technical Folks: Product owners or managers can craft rough prototypes to clarify vision and reduce back-and-forth. That’s innovation in collaboration!
Dipping Toes Into Coding: For beginners, AI-generated code can be a fun intro to see what coding looks like across domains, sparking curiosity.

📝 To Sum It Up

Vibe coding isn’t evil — it’s another tool in the toolbox. Like any tool, it depends on when, where, and how you use it.

Will I switch to full vibe coding anytime soon? Nope. I like to be the pilot at the controls, fully aware of what’s going on “under the hood.”

But if the future demands it and vibe coding matures? Count me in, eyes wide open.

If vibe coding energizes you, go for it! Just don’t forget the risks and the importance of solid fundamentals.

After all, whether you’re old-school banging keys or new-school prompting AI, we’re all riding the same rollercoaster.

And that, my friends, is the real vibe.

💬 Got thoughts? Join the discussion in the comments below!