Andrej Karpathy, the AI researcher and former OpenAI employee who coined the term “vibe coding,” says AI-generated code is still messy and requires human supervision.
The idea of “vibe coding” has quickly gained traction among developers and non-developers alike. It describes a growing approach to building software with AI tools—where people generate code based on prompts or intent, often without fully understanding the underlying logic. As tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT make it easier to “describe what you want” and get working code, more people are shipping products with little to no traditional programming experience.
But Karpathy says the reality is still far from seamless.
Speaking in a Sequoia Capital interview released Wednesday, he stressed that human input remains essential. When asked which skills will matter more as AI agents improve, he pointed to clarity as critical. “People still need to define the spec and the plan in detail,” he said, noting that without clear direction, even capable AI systems can go off track.
