For Educators
What Is Vibe Coding?
How AI changed software — and why it matters for your classroom
"Vibe Coding"
A way of building software where you describe what you want in plain English and let AI write the code for you. You focus on the idea — the "vibe" — and AI handles the technical details. The term was coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy in February 2025.
The Year AI Learned to Code
AI goes from a research project to something anyone can use. It feels like magic.
ChatGPT launches and for the first time, anyone can have a conversation with AI and get working code back. The workflow was simple: copy your code into a chat, ask AI to fix it, then paste the answer back. It felt magical, even if it was slow.
Tools like GitHub Copilot start predicting the next few lines of code as you type — like autocomplete on steroids. Programmers start hitting Tab more than they type.
AI Gets Better, Fast
AI becomes a helpful sidekick. It's useful, but you still have to double-check everything.
The next generation of AI models arrives with much better reasoning. AI can now solve complex problems, write more reliable code, and accept much larger inputs — entire documents, not just small snippets.
People treat AI like a helpful but unreliable assistant. You still have to check everything it gives you, line by line. Trust is low — but the potential is obvious.
AI Sees the Big Picture
The era of "The Shift." AI tools start understanding entire projects and automating multi-step tasks.
AI tools can now understand entire projects at once — not just a snippet you paste in. You can point AI at a whole website or app and it understands how all the pieces connect.
AI tools move beyond simple chat — they start generating live previews of websites and apps. People shift from writing code themselves to directing what AI builds. The role is changing.
The Year of Vibe Coding
People stop writing code and start describing what they want. AI does the rest.
AI researcher Andrej Karpathy coins the term "Vibe Coding" — a way of building software where you describe what you want in plain English, accept what AI gives you, and fix issues by pasting error messages back. You barely touch the keyboard.
Tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and Claude let you build entire features in plain language. Competition drives prices down and quality up — making these tools accessible to everyone. Some don't even show a code editor anymore, just a dashboard of what AI is building for you.
— Andrej Karpathy, February 2025
Where We Are Now
AI builds most of the code. The human role is deciding what to build and whether to trust the result.
AI coding tools are powerful but not perfect. It feels incredibly productive to generate tons of code, but relying too heavily on AI without understanding the output can create fragile software. Learning to spot what AI gets wrong is a new essential skill.
The casual approach matures. People learn to be more intentional — giving AI clear instructions and checking its work at key points. The latest tools handle entire tasks on their own: reading your project, writing files, testing, and saving results. You describe the goal, and AI does the rest.