Converting Ideas to vibe-code
Though still in its early stages, AI is fundamentally changing how we do creative work and code.
ChatGPT is affecting how we write and speak. Words commonly used by LLMs are being used a lot more in podcasts and other media. This means though these podcasts are not entirely generated by AI (yet), but there is a significant portion of the process being run through AI - ideation, editing, and other tasks where humans feel like AI can accelerate the process.
To be clear - I don't think this is entirely a bad thing. I am really worried about "AI slop", but for a creative person with a vision, these are amazing tools.
Coding in flux
For coding, there is a similar tug-of-war ongoing.
There always used to be a joke that a coder only needs a keyboard with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy paste from StackOverflow.
But now that AI has hollowed out StackOverflow, the same joke is being made about AI. AI, in fact, has now gone multiple steps further by actually editing the code base and vibe-coding entire apps with just prompts.
At first glance, this fundamental shift in programming seems worrying. However, most of the coding work isn't revolutionary.
For example, when you want to build a simple mobile application which lets you learn a new language, most of the of the coding time isn't spent on building new fundamental technologies, but on implementing design details and UI flows. Other than the difference in the "application" this is basically a solved problem in coding.
So, arguably, the most valuable work done in this example is on conceptualizing the app and its flow. AI building out a standard "User Profile" page in an app with one click I would argue is a better use of everybody's time.
With AI, we can now build software products at a much higher level of abstraction. We can compare it to building a website. We have moved from hosting HTML files in our personal computers or home servers in the 1990s, to just clicking on a few buttons to start your own blog (like on this site).
Even before AI, there was a significant push in the last few years towards no-code and low-code platforms like AppsScript and Retool to build quick custom tools. AI has supercharged this behaviour.
Vibe-coded, but not great
A major concern about these "vibe-coded" apps is that, they full of flaws, and deployed by people who have no idea what it takes to deploy an app to production. Lot of hate can be found online - here's an example.
The concern is real and I too find the "vibe-coding" term very annoying.
But I do think this is a temporary phenomenon.
Given that we are at a place where this type of coding is now possible, but for people who are not familiar with this world, there is a lot of struggle with intangibles of software development - security, deployments, server costs, etc.
Security, scale, and robustness of apps are important. A wrong kind of deployment can bankrupt you with a huge AWS bill. It is just that today's vibe-coding environment is not made for serious production deployments. It is great for prototyping things internally.
In the next year, I think there is will be a major rise in products which will support this new coding and developing paradigm. I expect an entire eco-system which will enable everybody to turn their ideas and concepts to real apps with only basic (or no) coding knowledge.
In this new world, converting ideas into reality will be easy. It will need less people to do regurgitate work we have done thousands of times before, and hopefully, work on more fun, meaningful things.