{"slug": "vibe-coding-is-fun-and-easy-but-there-s-a-major-catch", "title": "'Vibe coding' is fun and easy, but there's a major catch", "summary": "Researchers have found thousands of security flaws and exposed secrets in publicly available AI-generated applications, warning that 'vibe coding'—creating software by describing an idea to an AI chatbot—can produce apps that appear to work but are not trustworthy. The term was coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, and recent stats indicate about 63% of vibe coding platform users are people without a programming background.", "body_md": "Imagine you’ve always wanted your own app. Perhaps one that tracks your household budget, organises the family shopping list or reminds you when to water your plants.\n\nUntil recently, turning that idea into reality would have meant learning to code or paying a software developer. Now you can simply tell an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot about your idea. Within minutes, it can write the code, fix errors and help you build a working app.\n\nThis approach is known as vibe coding. It’s fast, exciting and is making it possible for [millions of people to create software](https://www.13labs.au/guides/vibe-coding-statistics-2026) for the first time.\n\nIt’s easy to see why vibe coding has become so popular. Yet researchers have already found [thousands of security flaws](https://escape.tech/blog/methodology-how-we-discovered-vulnerabilities-apps-built-with-vibe-coding/) and exposed secrets in publicly available AI-generated applications. Software that appears to work isn’t always software you can trust.\n\n## What is vibe coding?\n\nThe term “vibe coding” was [coined](https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383?s=20) by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy. Rather than writing the software yourself, you describe the outcome you want – or the “vibe” – in plain, everyday language and let AI generate most or all of the software.\n\nIf something doesn’t work, you ask the AI tool to fix it. You don’t necessarily need to understand how the code works – you just keep prompting until you get the result you’re after.\n\nTools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and specialised generative AI based coding assistants have made this possible. In fact, the most recent survey by major coding platform Stack Overflow revealed that [84% of developers globally](https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/ai) used or planned to use AI coding tools in 2025.\n\nAnd it’s not just developers using them: recent stats indicate [about 63%](https://www.hostinger.com/blog/vibe-coding-statistics/) of users of vibe coding platforms are people without a programming background, building products and tools of their own.\n\nPeople with little or no programming experience can now build websites, apps and automated workflows (such as compiling documents or doing other complex tasks) in a fraction of the time it once took.\n\n## Building reliable software\n\nMost people imagine software developers spend their days writing code. In reality, coding is only one part of a much bigger process.\n\nBefore software is released, developers ask important questions. Does it work reliably? Is it secure? Can someone else maintain it? What happens if something goes wrong?\n\nThey test different situations, review each other’s work and fix problems before anyone else uses the software.\n\nThese steps aren’t there to slow developers down. They’re there because even software that seems to work for its purpose [can still expose](https://getautonoma.com/blog/vibe-coding-failures) sensitive data or disrupt critical systems.\n\nVibe coding [can make it tempting to skip](https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3786583.3786866) much of this process. If the app appears to work, it’s easy to assume the job is finished.\n\n*\nRead more:\n*\n\n[Starting or running a business with AI? There are legal risks you can’t afford to ignore](https://theconversation.com/starting-or-running-a-business-with-ai-there-are-legal-risks-you-cant-afford-to-ignore-288084)\n\n## The risks of vibe coding\n\nNow, suppose you ask AI to build an app to manage your household expenses.\n\nThe app opens, records your purchases and calculates your spending. Everything seems fine.\n\nBut is it calculating correctly in every situation? Is your financial information stored securely? What happens if the app crashes halfway through entering your monthly expenses?\n\nOr perhaps it stores your financial data in a way that’s easy for others to access. The app does exactly what you asked – but your personal information may not be properly protected.\n\nThese aren’t questions most beginners think to ask, yet they’re exactly the kinds of questions professional developers routinely consider.\n\nFixing problems can also become frustrating. You ask the AI to solve one issue, [only to discover it has introduced another](https://developers.redhat.com/articles/2026/02/17/uncomfortable-truth-about-vibe-coding#where_it_falls_apart) somewhere else. Without understanding what the AI has changed, you’re left relying on it to solve problems it may have created.\n\n## When is vibe coding enough?\n\nNone of this means vibe coding should be avoided entirely.\n\nIt’s an excellent way to experiment with ideas, learn programming concepts or quickly build personal tools. Entrepreneurs can create prototypes, hobbyists can automate repetitive tasks, and small organisations can explore ideas that might otherwise never get built.\n\nThe risks increase when AI-generated software is treated as ready for real-world use simply because it works.\n\nApps that handle personal information, financial transactions or business operations still need careful testing and human oversight, regardless of who – or what – wrote the code. [In one security study](https://www.veracode.com/blog/genai-code-security-report/), about 45% of AI-generated code samples failed standard security tests.\n\nThe broader issue goes beyond coding. Researchers have long warned about “[automation bias](https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocw105)” – the tendency to accept recommendations from automated systems without adequately checking them. As AI becomes better at solving complex tasks, it’s becoming easier to accept its answers without questioning them.\n\nSoftware is just one area where this can have serious consequences, because mistakes may remain hidden until something goes wrong.\n\n## AI can write code, but it can’t take responsibility\n\nVibe coding is opening software development to people with great ideas but little programming experience.\n\nBut making software easier to create doesn’t make it easier to judge whether it’s secure, reliable and ready for others to use.\n\nNo matter how good AI becomes at generating code, people – not AI – must remain responsible for what that code does.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vibe-coding-is-fun-and-easy-but-there-s-a-major-catch", "canonical_source": "https://theconversation.com/vibe-coding-is-fun-and-easy-but-theres-a-major-catch-287693", "published_at": "2026-07-30 05:35:24+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-30 05:52:21.013271+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-safety", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Andrej Karpathy", "ChatGPT", "Claude", "Gemini", "Stack Overflow"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vibe-coding-is-fun-and-easy-but-there-s-a-major-catch", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vibe-coding-is-fun-and-easy-but-there-s-a-major-catch.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vibe-coding-is-fun-and-easy-but-there-s-a-major-catch.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/vibe-coding-is-fun-and-easy-but-there-s-a-major-catch.jsonld"}}