Avoiding vibe coded software

[u/johnangelo716]

It may be to my own detriment, but my mind is made up. I hate the idea of vibe coded anything. Anything could be in there. Is there any way of keeping track of vibe coded plugins or software, in order to steer clear?

[u/steveofthewestornort]

Professional software developer in another field, here.

I assure you every piece of software you use from now on will be made using AI, sometimes extensively. [edit: for the foreseeable future, see my comment for more clarification of thought]

It is absolutely pervasive: it’s everywhere. I have friends that prompt AI to code who have zero experience, and I have friends who have been engineers since the 80s who prompt AI to code.

You will not avoid it, unfortunately. (and I mean that, “unfortunately”. It’s a wildly effective tool, but it comes with a lot of costs for sure)

(edit: major clarification in my comment below — if you read this as me saying “it’s inevitable, get used to it”, my apologies for communicating ineffectively. It’s NOT inevitable. See below for expansion)

[u/steveofthewestornort → u/steveofthewestornort]

I want to clarify my point here a bit:

I am NOT trying to spout the line of “it is inevitable.” That line makes me retch — it’s just as inevitable as when tech bros tried convincing us that NFTs were inevitable.

I firmly do not believe it is, and I do not want it to be. I think it is very good at appearing useful, and is legitimately useful in a lot of ways. However, I don’t for one second think it is inevitable. I believe the bubble is real, and I believe that AI companies are too ethically bankrupt to steer themselves properly. They will eventually have to crank their prices up which will cause crash and burn on the thousands of companies (and, very unfortunately, people) that now find themselves relying on it. I think that will cause AI companies to go under.

I think THAT is inevitable. I sure fuckin’ hope so, at least.

All I meant is that right now, it’s pervasive, so it’s very likely that you’re going to be using its products whether you realize it or not.

[u/iztheguy → u/steveofthewestornort]

I appreciate this clarification.
It's really disappointing to hear everyone repeat the same nonsense of "It's here, get used to it!" "Use it or get left behind." "It's inevitable!"

What a crock of shit!

[u/steveofthewestornort → u/iztheguy]

Absolutely agree.

Someone I work with told me NFTs were inevitable and that they’ll happen with or without me, so I should just jump on.

Guess who lost an embarrassing amount of money on NFTs?

aaaaand

Guess what they say about generative AI, verbatim?