Amateur and professional programmers are mostly anti-vibe coding, but they use AI to assist them every day, so they're being a little disingenuous about the use of AI tools for coding.
Look, I agree that Vibe Coding has some serious potential issues. Mostly to do with security as those who go down this path often have no understanding of the potential problems.
For the uninitiated, Vibe Coding is using an AI tool to write programs, plugins, etc. for you. All you do is tell the AI what you want the end result to be and it will create a program for you.
The type of programs, or apps, that an AI tool can create accurately are usually small, simple tools and games. Which is fine if that's all you want, but they are particularly bad at larger, more complex things.
For those you will need at least some coding background or you won't be able to identify how, what, or where the problems exist, and there will almost certainly be security holes in the end result.
One potential way around that would be to give all the code to a different AI tool and ask it where the problems are and how to fix them. That works, but you do need to understand the limitations of the tools.
I use AI to assist me with my coding efforts every day. I can use it to write scripts and apps in languages that I don't know, using tools I've never used, and get a reasonably good outcome because I've been coding for years and I understand algorithms and the structure of code.
I'm not a professional coder, I've never played one on TV or in movies, so everything in this article is based on my thoughts and amateur experience.
I have sold programs, scripts and app that's I've created, with and without the help of AI. I even have tools in publicly available platforms that were at least AI assisted.
In my opinion Vibe Coding is neither good nor bad. AI platforms are tools to be used to make things easier and faster. They are not yet ready to replace trained programmers, and probably never will be based on my current experience.
For example: In a recent coding exercise the AI tool made the process far more complex than it needed to be because it didn't have the ability to think through to the required end result. I've seen people do the same things, but usually because they haven't had the experience yet.
AI programming is in its infancy, they are junior programmers who are very fast, but they are not yet senior programmers.
If you want to get into programming without going through the laborious task of tertiary education either online or off, you can get the AI tools to teach you how to do things.
No, you won't get certified this way, but you could combine that with an online course and get that certification, but don't cheat by using the AI to do all the exercises for you or you will be wasting your and everybody else's time.
Cheating and short-cuts may get you the certification but you'll know that you really don't deserve it. Imposter Syndrome will catch up to you.
AI is here to stay. It will get better rapidly. Learning to use it is a far better use of your time than fighting against it. The Luddites didn't stop the encroachment of automation and nor will you.
But, I should point out that there are some things that come under the heading of "Because I can, not because I should", which applies to many things not just in the AI and coding world, but also in many aspects of the scientific and political communities.