AI Coding Has Limits

Are you feeling the vibe? I’m not talking about the atmosphere down at the restaurant that’s too busy to take your reservation—I’m talking about the vibe that seems like it’s putting programmers out of business faster than a return to the abacus. Vibe Programming is a real thing; whether it’s a really good thing remains a very active question.

- Curtis Franklin

Promises, Promises: Vibe coding is the current term for using a well-crafted prompt to get an large language model (LLM) AI engine to write software for you. It seems to finally fulfill the software promise launched with COBOL: Simply tell the computer what you want it to do in plain language and your algorithmic wish will be granted. No more learning complicated programming languages, no more late nights counting semicolons, no more taking the time to set up the scripts to link, load, and compile code—just plain, ordinary words typed into a prompt screen.