Vibe coding is currently the talk of the tech town, with some of the world’s leading tech company CEOs encouraging more developers to adopt it for churning out code faster than ever and more creatively. However, in a candid discussion of emerging AI-assisted programming trends, Michael Truell, CEO and co-founder of Cursor, has warned that vibe coding, which is essentially a casual approach to letting AI generate large swaths of code without thorough review, could lead to fragile software systems that eventually fall apart.
What is ‘Vibe coding’?
Truell described vibe coding as a method where developers simply describe their desired outcomes in natural language, allowing AI tools to build entire software components end-to-end.
This hands-off style contrasts with traditional coding, where programmers write, review, and understand code line by line. While it speeds up prototyping and makes development more accessible, Truell argues it skips critical inspection of the underlying structure.
The construction analogy
Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference earlier this month, Truell used a vivid analogy to illustrate the dangers. “If you were vibe coding, you would close your eyes and just ask for a house to be built. You wouldn’t examine the foundations, you wouldn’t look under the floorboards, and you wouldn’t look at the wiring,” he said.
He elaborated that as developers add more features, equivalent to stacking additional floors on the house, the unexamined weaknesses in AI-generated code compound, causing the entire system to “start to kind of crumble.” Truell acknowledged that vibe coding might be fine for small prototypes, hobby projects, or quick demos where speed trumps robustness.
However, for serious, high-stakes applications like enterprise software and infrastructure, over-reliance on unchecked AI code creates blind spots. Hidden flaws become harder to detect and fix as complexity grows, resulting in systems that are difficult to maintain and prone to failure.
The CEO highlighted how generative AI has transformed coding. Developers now spend less time manually writing code and more time directing AI to handle tasks like function creation or refactoring, he said. This shift has democratised programming and accelerated development, particularly for newcomers. Yet, Truell stressed the importance of actively reviewing AI outputs to preserve software integrity.
Irony from the head of an AI Coding Tool
Truell’s warnings carry extra weight given his position. Cursor, which was founded in 2022, is an AI-powered code editor designed to generate, debug, and enhance code, serving professional engineering teams on complex projects. The company has exploded in popularity, boasting over a million daily users and achieving billion-dollar valuation status. Despite building a business on AI-assisted coding, Truell is urging caution to ensure long-term sustainability in the field.
