OpenClaw creator says 'vibe coding' has become a slur

"There are these people that write software the old way, and the old way is going to go away. They call it 'vibe coding.' I think vibe coding is a slur. What's wrong with the term is that it implies ease. They don't understand that it's a skill."

"Most code is boring. I have a pretty good understanding of what it writes. If AI coding is like playing the guitar, then Steinberger has all his chords down, shipping code without reading it after honing his skills with AI code editors."

Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, criticizes the term 'vibe coding' as a derogatory label that misrepresents AI-assisted code generation as effortless. He argues the phrase implies ease when the practice actually requires substantial skill development, comparing it to learning guitar. Steinberger ships AI-generated code without reading it, stating most code is boring and that he understands what the AI produces. Other industry leaders share his frustration with the term; Andrew Ng called it misleading, while Andrej Karpathy, who originally coined it, now prefers 'agentic engineering.' Despite this criticism, vibe coding gained widespread adoption in 2025, becoming Collins Dictionary's word of the year.

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