University of Kwazulu-Natal

The Rise Of Vibe Coding Forbes Ca

Bonisiwe Shabane
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the rise of vibe coding forbes ca

In early January, 18‑year‑old Justin Jin launched Giggles — an AI-powered social entertainment app that’s reportedly attracted over 120,000 waitlist sign-ups and generated 150 million impressions — all without a venture capital war chest,... Instead, he and his team of young co-founders leveraged AI to build an app for Gen Alpha and Gen Z, where users interact through AI-generated content, digital collectibles and gamified social engagements. A few weeks later, another startup arrived on the scene — Base44, founded by a non-technical creator who used AI to “vibe code” a no-code development platform. Within six months and under ten people, it reached profitability, pulled in 300,000 users and sold to Wix for $80 million in cash, according to TechCrunch. Suddenly, a new archetype emerged: Companies not founded on traditional engineering teams, but shaped by creativity, culture and AI orchestration. This is the story of the moment.

AI is redefining entrepreneurship, allowing people with a vision and cultural understanding — but not necessarily computer-science degrees — to ship platform-level products. But questions are mounting: Can this new model of entrepreneurship scale beyond prototype success without deeper engineering muscle? Two years ago, the phrase “vibe coding” barely existed. Today, it’s everywhere. The term — coined by Andrej Karpathy, former AI lead at Tesla and cofounder of OpenAI — describes writing with AI by simply speaking ideas. “You fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials and forget that the code even exists,” Karpathy tweeted in February.

It’s shorthand for a new era, where programming is done through a natural language like English. According to Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, many startups now use AI to generate up to 95% of their codebase — achieving results that once required teams of 50 to 100 engineers with... Meanwhile, in a recent article for Business Insider, Alistair Barr highlighted how “non‑traditional, AI‑native developers” are turning natural language into apps, fundamentally altering SaaS economics. Silicon Valley rush to embrace AI tools that allow anyone to code and create software Until recently, software talent was "the scarcest, most coveted resource" in Silicon Valley, said Semafor. Now, the balance of power is shifting, thanks to a new generation of AI tools that have made it possible for anyone to create apps and websites simply by describing what they want –...

These AI tools are able to translate instructions written in plain English into computer code, which can then be used to create software; no need to master programming languages or complex data structures. Already, companies large and small are using these new AI-powered assistants to automate processes that, just a year or two ago, would have taken human software engineers hundreds of hours. Vibe coding is fuelling a new Silicon Valley boom – and, for software engineers, it's an alarming encroachment into their industry. The term "vibe coding" was coined this year by computer scientist and OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy in a post on X, in which he described using AI-generated code for "throwaway weekend projects". Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Picture this: You sit down at your computer, open a text editor, and instead of wrestling with semicolons and syntax errors, you simply tell the computer what you want to build. “Create a weather app that shows the temperature and forecast for my city.” Minutes later, you have a working application. This isn’t science fiction. This is vibe coding, and it’s already changing how people build software. The software development world is experiencing a seismic shift. Traditional programming, with its rigid syntax rules and steep learning curves, is giving way to something far more intuitive.

Vibe coding lets anyone describe their ideas in plain English and watch as artificial intelligence transforms those descriptions into functional code. This transformation goes beyond just making programming easier. It’s democratizing software creation, opening doors for entrepreneurs who’ve never touched a line of code, and forcing seasoned developers to rethink everything they know about their craft. Many non-coders now find themselves building a web app or even automating parts of a codebase without ever learning syntax in depth. Whether you’re a complete beginner wondering if coding is still worth learning, a business owner looking to build your first app, or an experienced developer curious about what’s coming next, this guide will show... Programming has always been a blend of logic, creativity, and problem-solving.

But as technology evolves, so does the way we approach coding. Enter vibe coding—a new paradigm in software development where developers collaborate with AI to write, debug, and optimize code. This emerging trend, popularized by Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s former AI director, is reshaping how we think about programming. Let’s dive into what vibe coding is, how it works, and why it’s poised to revolutionize the way we build software. Vibe coding is a technique where developers use AI-powered tools to assist in the coding process. Instead of writing every line of code manually, programmers rely on AI to generate suggestions, complete functions, and even debug errors.

The term “vibe” reflects the intuitive and collaborative nature of this approach—it’s less about rigid syntax and more about flowing with the AI to achieve the desired outcome. Imagine having a pair programmer who never gets tired, knows every programming language, and can instantly recall best practices from millions of open-source projects. That’s the essence of vibe coding. Tools like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, and Amazon CodeWhisperer are at the forefront of this movement, enabling developers to work smarter and faster. At its core, vibe coding relies on large language models (LLMs) trained on vast amounts of code and natural language data. These models understand context, syntax, and even the intent behind your code.

Here’s how the process typically unfolds: Earlier this spring, Alex Balazs hosted an internal hackathon at business software provider Intuit, where the chief technology officer challenged his global team of engineers to embrace artificial intelligence in their work as much... To give them the tools to do so, one week before the biannual meeting, Balazs approved the usage of “every AI coding tool that we’re aware of,” including Qodo, Windsurf, and Cursor. He quickly saw that thousands of Intuit’s engineers were using these tools, up from hundreds previously. “Our metrics are showing us that engineers love it,” says Balazs. Intuit is tracking how frequently the AI coding tools are being used, the steadiness of that usage over time, and productivity.

Early indications are that efficiency gains can be as high as 40%. Along the path to going all-in on AI coding assistant tools, Balazs finds himself enticed by a new concept called “vibe coding.” It is a term that was coined earlier this year by OpenAI... Balazs recently experimented with vibe coding when using Windsurf to create a tool that would allow him to import data from a competitor product directly into Intuit’s QuickBooks software. “I found myself making significantly more progress with my rusty coding skills than probably I would have otherwise,” says Balazs. Vibe Coding is reshaping software development in 2025 by making it faster, more accessible, and collaborative, driven by AI advancements. That feeling when you describe what you want your app to do—and the code just appears.

No endless debugging sessions, no syntax errors, just pure development. This isn't some developer's fever dream; it's the reality of Vibe Coding in 2025. Coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy earlier this year, Vibe Coding marks a fundamental shift in software development. Vibe Coding is a paradigm shift. It emerged from a collective frustration with tedious debugging and repetitive boilerplate code. But the transition hasn’t been seamless.

The transition's been messy, gradual, and frankly, it still has plenty of skeptics. While companies like OpenAI and Anthropic developed the core technology, it wasn’t until Karpathy demonstrated its full potential that everything clicked. As you read on, you will discover why many consider this method a game changer for both outsourcing teams and in-house developers alike. Quick Fact: Recent surveys indicate that nearly 44% of developers had already adopted AI coding tools by 2023, and projects using Vibe Coding can see productivity gains of up to 55% faster completion times.

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