Can you vibe code an entire search engine? This ex-Googler tried.

Former Google engineering leader Hugh Williams used Anthropic's Claude Code to build a working search engine called Zettair that indexes 1.5 million Wikipedia articles, without writing any code himself. Williams argues that AI coding assistants work best when paired with deep technical expertise, comparing the process to coaching rather than programming.

Former Google engineering leader Hugh Williams https://www.businessinsider.com/paramount-hires-former-google-exec-hugh-williams-ad-tech-product-2026-4 is back with another fascinating Claude Code experiment. After previously showing how Anthropic's coding assistant helped him build an AWS-based system in 48 hours https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-memo-claude-code-assistant-anthropic-aws-review-2025-8 , Williams has been using Claude Code https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-ai-breakthrough-vibe-coding-revolution-2025-7 recently to create a working search engine called Zettair that indexes 1.5 million Wikipedia articles. The project includes features you'd expect from a modern search engine: autosuggest, query-biased snippets, related searches, trending topics, and AI-generated summaries. Williams says he wrote zero lines of code himself, relying entirely on Claude Code. That's technically true, with an important caveat: the underlying search engine is based on an information-retrieval system he helped build in the early 2000s. His biggest takeaway wasn't that AI can replace engineers. Instead, Williams argues Claude Code works best when paired with deep technical expertise. Building with AI, he says, feels less like programming and more like coaching — and experienced engineers still make the best coaches. Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/tech-memo . Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com mailto:abarr@businessinsider.com .