Flame Of The Week It’s been a while since our last Flame Of The Week, but it appears that AI is generating some strong feelings among our beloved readership.
Last week, we published a short piece noting the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s position paper on why it is still important to teach kids how to code in the age of AI and the advent of Vibe Coding. A reader calling themselves “AI Hater” took great exception to this piece and wrote us the following missive:
“Your article on vine coding is atrocious, did AI write it for you shit for brains? Vibe coding is a ridiculous fact that only teaches people that AI sucks, go away.”
It’s helpful to imagine UK national treasure Adam Buxton reading this one out.
We can only speculate what “vine coding” is – something to do with grape varieties or applying classifications to a short-form video hosting service. Or something else?
As for the quality of the writing, it’s all from humans. Any attempt to use generative AI in writing a piece would result in a richly deserved ejection from Vulture Central.
Vibe coding being ridiculous though… that’s trickier to quantify. Generative AI coding assistants are a fact, regardless of what a user might think of them. Their trajectory is likely to be one of improvement as time goes by. However, as the paper from the Raspberry Pi Foundation suggests, a grounding in coding concepts will continue to be essential to understand what is being spat out in response to a user’s instruction.
And yes, as with any tool, inappropriate usage will serve no other purpose than to give the impression that AI does indeed suck. Indeed, AI fatigue has long since set in within the tech industry, not helped by the tech giants squeezing the technology into any available crevice.
Using code produced by generative AI, as long as a developer knows where the source came from, has an appeal as a starting point. Vibe coding, where no coding skill is required, is probably a bit of a fad, which will likely pass into programming legend after a few catastrophic projects. But AI as a concept… that’s unlikely to go away any time soon.
Sorry, AI Hater. ®
