Risks of Vibe Coding

Even though vibe coding can make you much more productive, it also has some risks. It's important to be aware of these risks so you can use vibe coding safely and effectively.

Risks of Vibe Coding for other people

• 💀 It might look finished but still be broken. The app may seem like it works but actually have hidden bugs you can't see.
• 💀 You may not understand the code. If you cannot explain it, it is hard to fix or trust it. A junior Indian programmer was fired after he relied on vibe coding and caused a production line stoppage.
• 💀 It may copy patterns from the internet. The code might include insecure or outdated ideas.
• 💀 It can create unsafe apps. For example, apps that collect names, photos, passwords, or payment details.

Risks of Vibe Coding for your own learning

• Cognitive offloading. As you learnt in the previous lesson, if the AI does all the thinking, you may not learn the problem-solving skills.
• In an experiment with 1000 Turkish high school Maths students, access to an LLM improved their performance when practising, however during closed-book exams they performed 17% worse than those who didn't use LLMs.

• In a smaller study of 21 university students new to programming, struggling students who used GenAI to finish a task walked away believing they were better at coding than they were.