Recently, in a server I was in, I saw someone ask a rather simple question: “Who here vibe codes?”

Before I begin, I want to make clear I'm not here to talk about the ethics or how corporations use AI. This is purely at a hobbyist level, this is just an article im writing to speak my mind.

That being said, it's time for me to confess something. I began my hobby of programming using generative AI. Around 2023, when I began my journey, ChatGPT had just become popular, and I had always wanted to program, but no matter what I did, I just couldn’t figure it out.

I used ChatGPT to generate my code for a chat application using a free websocket, along with some miscellaneous JavaScript bookmarklets. At this time, all I was really doing was taking the code output and pasting it, similarly to the modern vibe coder.

Now, I refrain from using AI, and for very good reasons. Of all the code that would get generated, I would have no clue how to fix any of it. Inevitably, issues would arise, and when ChatGPT would hallucinate “fixes” that never ended up working, I would have no clue why.

I recently worked on a chatbot for a website using websockets, and I met someone. The person I had met was doing the same as I once had, but a modern version. They were making a bot, like me, but had no experience with coding at all. They just used a vibe coding platform. From our interactions, he showcased deep frustration that his code wasn’t working. The AI would introduce problems, and he had no clue how to fix them. Just like I had once done with the original ChatGPT model, GPT-3.5.

This is a major part of my issue with using generative AI to program. Typically, you are robbing yourself of the ability to debug, and to work through problems that are essential as a programmer and a skill that’s useful, even outside of programming.

In the end, I don’t blame people who are starting out for using AI. It can fill you with happiness seeing something you’ve wanted to make exist, but in the end, using it to start off will give you a crutch that you will inevitably be unable to lean on.

I urge you, as a programmer who had to learn the hard way, don’t start off your coding journey using AI.