 |
|
|
|||||
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was the recipient of some very bad vibes last week after bragging on X that nearly half his exchanges code is already AI-generated, with plans to push it higher. The post unleashed a torrent of ridicule, and seemed to crystalize the skepticism over the reliability of vibe coding tools that’s been bubbling for months. Over the last couple of years, AI coding tools like Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), Cursor, Lovable, and Replit have reached far beyond auto-completing lines of code; they can generate entire apps and features from a plain-language prompt, even for users with little or no coding experience. But even as enterprise execs hope the tools will speed up their software production, many in the development community are finding that while vibe coding may be great for slapping together demos, its not so great for building secure, reliable, and explainable software. And the problems created by AI-generated code may only surface long after the software has shipped. Code created by AI coding agents can become development hell, says Jack Zante Hays, a senior software engineer at PayPal who works on AI software development tools. He notes that while the tools can quickly spin up new features, they often generate technical debt, introducing bugs and maintenance burdens that must eventually be paid down with developer time and effort. That trade-off has some engineers questioning whether vibe coding tools ultimately cost more time than they save. Vibe coding tools are great for creating software demos, most would agree. Theres real value in a tool that allows a nontechnical product manager to whip together the front end and some features of an app, take it to a software team and say See? This is what I want. The problems start when AI coding tools are used to code new apps, features, or functions that will eventually have to interact with all the other software in a codebase, including databases, security tools, authentication services, external APIs, and infrastructure. Managing all those connections is tricky. According to Hays, vibe coding tools hit a complexity ceiling once a codebase grows beyond a certain size. Small code bases might be fine up until they get to a certain size, and thats typically when AI tools start to break more than they solve, he says. And the problem only gets worse with inexperienced users. Vibe codingespecially from nonexperienced users who can only give the AI feature demandscan involve changing like 60 things at oncewithout testing, so 10 things can be broken at once. Unlike a human engineer, who methodically tests each addition, vibe-coded software often struggles to adapt once its live, particularly when confronted with real-world edge cases. Some argue the problem with vibe coding apps is more fundamental. To generate safe and reliable code, an AI agent needs a broad understanding of the entire codebase. The behavior of a single feature often depends on the state or actions of many other components. That kind of integration requires reasoning, and a growing body of research questions whether large language models can truly reason rather than simply memorize and reapply contextual patterns. Developers themselves have real doubts about vibe coding tools. Stack Overflows most recent survey found that while more than half of professional developers now use AI coding tools daily, 46% distrust their accuracy compared with 33% who trust them. Positive sentiment also fell, dropping from 70% in 2024 to 60% in 2025. Only 30% of working developers said the tools are good or great at handling complex coding tasks. Accidents will happen Stories of the unintended consequences of vibe coding are starting to surface, even if many incidents likely go unreported. In July, the Tea appwhich lets women share information about men theyve datedreported a major data breach that some observers believe was tied to AI coding agents. The app left an unsecured cloud database containing 72,000 sensitive images, including selfies and photo IDs, as well as pictures from posts and messages. Hackers accessed the trove and users shared the data on 4chan before it spread more widely across the internet. A second exposure reportedly compromised even more user data, prompting Tea to disable its direct messaging feature. Will Wilson of the AI software testing firm Antithesis says the flaws in Teas code were likely AI-generated. The fact pattern fits so well with a thousand other instances of this happening with vibe coding, he says. Antithesiss platform stress-tests software within a simulated environment. Another episode came in August, when an AI agent from Replit deleted an entire database of executive contacts while working on a web app for SaaS investor Jason Lemkin. After nine days of building the front end with Replits chat agent, Lemkin told it to freeze the code. When he returned, the database had been erased. Replit was able to recover the records, but the mishap underscored the risk that vibe coders may overestimate what these tools can reliably do. Replit CEO Amjad Masad stresses tht AI coding agents are meant to handle syntax so developers can focus on higher-level work. But, he says, users must still think like developers. I think we need to be clear that it is not magic, that you need to learn the tools, he says. You shouldn’t just ask the agent for everything; you need to be resourceful. Lovable CEO and cofounder Anton Osika echoes that point. Obviously, the requirements are different for nontechnical users building personal apps compared to our enterprise users, he says. But its generally understood that all code should be reviewed before it is published, whether it is AI or human-generated. Toxic Waste and Evil Genies Antithesiss Will Wilson has seen a lot of different kinds of software bugs over the years, many of them created by human coders. The kinds of bugs AI coding tools create arent exactly novel; but they can happen faster and in greater numbers. I would say it’s definitely been a very big tailwind for our business because there are a lot of people now who come in the door and say this AI thing is happening I can’t really control what my developers are doing and they view us as a safety net that can catch the worst stuff that the AI might sneak past manual code review, Wilson says. Wilson puts the AI-generated bugs into two categories: toxic waste and evil genies. Long after the vibe coding is done, when software developers have to come back and repair or modify the code, they might run into the toxic waste problem. While AI coding tools create lots of code based on natural language input, they’re not good at explaining the why and how of the code in natural language. “I now need to come and try to understand that code from scratch, Wilson says. And that may take me longer than it would have taken just to write the code in the first place. Vibe coding tools sometimes behave like an evil genie that interprets wishes in only the most literal way. Say a man asks a genie for eternal life: an evil genie might grant the wish, but also cause the man to live forever as an old person, because the man didnt specify that hed like to be young for eternity. A vibe coding tool might interpret a prompt (the wish) similarly. The [tool] may find a way to interpret what you’re asking for in sort of the most hostile worst way because you didn’t give a complete specification of what it was that you wanted, Wilson says. And coders often fail to explicitly communicate things like business requirements or security standards, whether in their own code or in the prompts they give to AI coding agents. Measuring improvement, or not Of course the AI companies are constantly improving the large language models that are the brains of the AI coding agents. Some are working to build in testing and security guardrails, so human developers dont have to fix their unintended consequences later on. A lot of these criticisms refer to problems with AI coding tools of the past few years, which I cant always trust around my code, says PayPals Hays. But I have to say, Claude Code lately has been gaining my trust more and more as its usually able to surgically fix only the code I direct it to without invasively touching code thats outside of the scope of my request.” Theres evidence these tools have gotten smarter. Stanfords latest AI Index Report says AI systems in 2024 solved 71.7% of tasks on SWEBench, a benchmark for real-world software engineering. In 2023, LLMs solved just 4.4%. But benchmarks are only as good as their reflection of real-world coding problems. Some critics argue SWEBench is too easy, requiring relatively simple bug fixes. Others worry the questions, drawn from open-source repositories, may already appear in training data. And because SWEBench focuses only on Pythonthe dominant AI languageit doesnt test challenges in front-end or infrastructure code. Boris Cherny, the Anthropic engineer who created Claude Code, said on a recent podcast: It’s just so hard to build evals. By far the biggest signal is just the vibes. Like, does it feel smarter?” Beyond vibes, companies and investors are looking for proof that these tools can deliver real productivity gains. AI coding agents are being billed as one of the first applications of large language models to have a measurable payoff in productivity gains. The vibe coding startups often talk about how their tools make it possible for anyone to build apps, not just pro developers. Its a powerful pitch. X is awash with stories from non-coders about magically building a new app in a weekend. And private equity has responded. Lovable, for example, is reportedly entertaining new offers at a $4 billion valuationmore than double its last. Anysphere, maker of the Cursor coding tool, has been doubling its valuation every eight weeks since August 2024, according to PitchBook. Anthropic just raised another $13 billion, bringing its valuation to $183 billion. Those sky-high valuations arent driven only by hobbyists. They rest on the belief that vibe coding tools will become the default workflow for developers inside large companies, where executives hope the technology will dramatically boost speed, efficiency, and output. For now, that optimism runs strong at the leadership level, and vibe coding startups are racing to capture a share of the lucrative enterprise market for AI coding agents. As products evolve, some may lean harder on the vibe coding angle, broadening to cover more of the software build. But the eventual winners will likely be those that deepen their tools with stronger context awareness, reliability testing, and security guardrails.
Category:
E-Commerce
This month, thousands of global leaders, changemakers, and corporate citizens gather in New York City for the 2025 United Nations General Assembly. Beyond the official sessions for this event, another kind of convening will unfoldone thats less formal, but no less powerful. For those of us working in corporate social responsibility (CSR), this week offers a rare opportunity: a convergence of peers, partners, and potential collaborators all in one place. The networking corridors, side events, and shared coffees become fertile ground for forging new alliancesones that can scale impact far beyond what any single company could achieve alone. It often strikes me that my role in corporate social responsibility might sit in the least competitive corner of the business world. With companies trying to outpace one another, corporate social responsibility offers an opportunity for a different formula: The more we align, the more lives we reach. Public-private partnerships While every company has its own limits with philanthropic budgets, we can make those dollars stretch further through private-private partnershipsalliances where 1 + 1 equals 3. These partnerships allow companies to pool resources, expertise, and infrastructure in pursuit of shared values and social impact goals. Take, for example, a 2023 collaboration between Kelloggs and the Albertsons Companies Foundation to support Feeding America through the Feed the Love campaign. Kelloggs provided a grant to the Foundations Nourishing Neighbors initiative, helping provide over 300,000 meals. Albertsons promoted the effort across its grocery network, engaging consumers in the shared mission. This alignment showcases how leading brands in food manufacturing and retail can unite resources, amplify reach, and drive progress toward hunger relief. In early 2025, after wildfires scorched parts of Southern California, PepsiCo stepped up to supply food and beverages to affected families. Their strength was inventorybut distribution was the hurdle. By teaming with Amazon, PepsiCos Food for Good program accelerated relief delivery, turning shared logistics into life-saving outreach. NBCUniversal has cultivated extended partnerships that amplify nonprofit storytelling and nurture future creative talent. Our Creative Impact Lab not only supports nonprofit marketing but also provides career-building experiences for emerging creatives. Recently, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (the Center) joined forces with NBCUs Lab to elevate the work of its grantee, Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF), a Chicago-based nonprofit that finances small businesses. The Center funded Free Spirit Media to create marketing assets, with NBCUniversal employees mentoring the young creators. The resulting PSA now airs in donated media time on Comcast and NBCUniversal platforms, giving CRF national visibility. Similarly, The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) collaborated with NBCU to spotlight Wide Angle Youth Media (WAYM), a Baltimore nonprofit focused on media arts education. Through this partnership, WAYMs young creatives told their storybacked by funding, mentoring, and national airtime. In both projects, the benefits were mutual: funding and a selection of deserving grantee organizations from ELC and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, free airtime, and mentorship from NBCUniversal. Plus there were invaluable opportunities for rising creatives. These efforts created awareness for the nonprofits, while supporting the next generation of creative talent. Shared values And heres the key: None of this could happen without shared values. It requires corporations willing to break silos, share missions, and treat CSR not as a checkbox, but a creative, collective force for good. Looking ahead, I envision a CSR landscape where such partnerships are more routine. And, where industries of all stripes join forces to uplift the nonprofits working tirelessly to improve our communities. All it takes is cross-sector imagination and a commitment to thinking beyond turf. Hilary Smith is EVP of corporate social responsibility at NBCUniversal.
Category:
E-Commerce
Late last month, shares in EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) entered the stratosphere. The stock jumped as much as 80% in premarket trading on August 26 after it was announced that the company would sell some of its wireless spectrum licenses to AT&T for $23 billion. Now, EchoStar shares are up again in premarket trading. But this time its not thanks to its AT&T deal. It’s because the company has reached a deal with Elon Musks SpaceX. Heres what you need to know about why EchoStars shares are soaring again. Whats happened? Today, EchoStar announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with SpaceX to sell its AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses to Elon Musks company for approximately $17 billion. Spectrum licenses are government-granted licenses that give companies the right to operate their services on specific radio waves. If a company owns such licenses, it can often sell those licenses to other companies, as is the case in what EchoStar has previously announced it will do with AT&T. What does EchoStar get out of the deal? As with its previous spectrum license deal with AT&T, EchoStars spectrum license deal with SpaceX will primarily see the company getting boatloads of cash. SpaceX is offering EchoStar a total compensation of $17 billion for its spectrum licenses. Of that, $8.5 billion will be in cash and another $8.5 billion will be in SpaceX shares, which are currently only available privately. But EchoStar isnt just getting cash and SpaceX stock. The definitive agreement will also see SpaceX fund around $2 billion in cash interest payments to EchoStar. The two companies will also enter into a commercial agreement that will allow EchoStars Boost Mobile subscribers to access SpaceXs Starlink Direct to Cell service. EchoStar is the parent company of Boost Mobile, as well as Sling TV and the Dish Network satellite TV service. What does SpaceX get out of the deal? As for SpaceX, the companys president and COO, Gwynne Shotwell, says the deal will allow it to advance our mission to end mobile dead zones around the world. The deal will help do this by giving SpaceXs Starlink Direct to Cell satellites more spectrum to run on. In this next chapter, with exclusive spectrum, Shotwell said, SpaceX will develop next generation Starlink Direct to Cell satellites, which will have a step change in performance and enable us to enhance coverage for customers wherever they are in the world.” EchoStar/SpaceX deal also helps resolve FCC concerns The deal also has one other benefit for EchoStarits another step in helping the company resolve concerns by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its wireless spectrum licenses. Notably, SpaceX has long argued that EchoStar’s spectrum was being underutilized. Earlier this year, the FCC opened an investigation into the matter. EchoStar anticipates this transaction with SpaceX along with the previously announced spectrum sale will resolve the Federal Communications Commission’s inquiries, EchoStar said in a statement. How has EchoStars stock price reacted? Shares in EchoStar are soaring once again in the hours after the deal was announced. As of the time of this writing, SATS shares are currently up 23% in premarket trading to $82.75. That is an all-time high for the company, which, before todays surge, was worth about $20 billion. Before todays stock price jump, SATS had already had a great 2025, largely thanks to the August AT&T announcement. As of market close yesterday, SATS shares were up 193% year to date. Over the past 12 months, SATS shares were up 201%.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||