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Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

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Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#31
post #9

Is "vibe coding" synonymous with using AI code-generation tools now? I thought vibe coding meant very little direct interaction with the code, mostly telling the LLM what you want and iterating using the LLM. Which is fun and worth trying, but probably not a valid professional tool.

I think what happened is that a lot of people started dismissing all LLM code creation as "vibe coding" because those people were anti-LLM, and so the term itself became an easy umbrella pejorative. And then, more people saw these critics using "vibe coding" to refer to all LLM code creation, and naturally understood it to mean exactly that. Which means the recent articles we've seen about how good vibe coding starts…

“Agentic coding” is probably more accurate, though many people (fairly) find the term “Agentic” to be buzz-wordy and obnoxious.

I’m willing to vibe code a spike project. That is to say, I want to see how well some new tool or library works, so I’ll tell the LLM to build a proof of concept, and then I’ll study that and see how I feel about it. Then I throw it away and build the real version with more care and attention.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#33
post #26
post #9

Is "vibe coding" synonymous with using AI code-generation tools now? I thought vibe coding meant very little direct interaction with the code, mostly telling the LLM what you want and iterating using the LLM. Which is fun and worth trying, but probably not a valid professional tool.

I have "vibe coded" a few internal tools now that are very low risk in terms of negative business impact but nonetheless valuable for our team's efficiency. E.g one tool packages a debug build of an iOS simulator app with various metadata and uploads it to a specified location. Another tool spits out my team's github velocity metrics. These were relatively small scripting apps, that yes, I code reviewed and checked f…

The original definition of vibe coding meant that you just let the agent write everything, and if it works then you commit it. Your code review and security check turned this from vibe coding into something else.

This is complicated by the fact that some people use “vibe coding” to mean any kind of LLM-assisted coding.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#35
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By all means, if my goal is actually crafting anything. Usually it isn't, though - I just want to pump out code changes ASAP (but not sooner).

Even then I’ve mostly given up. I’ve seen LLMs change from snake case to camel case for a single method and leave the rest untouched. I’ve seen them completely fabricate APIs to non existent libraries. I’ve seen them get mathematical formulae completely wrong. I’ve seen it make entire methods for things that are builtins of a library I’m already using. It’s just not worth it anymore for anything that is part of an ac…

This changed my experience significantly:

https://github.com/BeehiveInnovations/zen-mcp-server/blob/ma...

It basically uses multiple different LLMs from different providers to debate a change or code review. Opus 4.1, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and GPT-5 all have a go at it before it writes out plans or makes changes.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#36
post #16

I think they're being really loose with the term "vibe coding", and what they really mean is AI-assisted coding. Older devs are not letting the AI do everything for them. Assuming they're like me, the planning is mostly done by a human, while the coding is largely done by the AI, but in small sections with the human giving specific instructions. Then there's debugging, which I don't really trust the AI to do very wel…

They're also being really loose with the term "older developers" by describing it as anybody with more than ten years of experience.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#37
post #9

Is "vibe coding" synonymous with using AI code-generation tools now? I thought vibe coding meant very little direct interaction with the code, mostly telling the LLM what you want and iterating using the LLM. Which is fun and worth trying, but probably not a valid professional tool.

My personal definition of "vibe coding" is when a developer delegates -- abdicates, really -- responsibility for understanding & testing what AI-generated code is doing and/or how that result is achieved. I consider it something that's separate from & inferior to using AI as a development tool.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#38
I've been at this for many years. If I want to implement a new feature that ties together various systems and delivers an expected output, I know the general steps that I need to take. About 80% of those steps are creating and stubbing out new files with the general methods and objects I know will be needed, and all the test cases. So... I could either spend the next 4 hours doing that, or spend 3 minutes filling out a CLAUDE.md with the specs and 5 minutes having Claude do it (and fairly well).

I feel no shame in doing the later. I've also learned enough about LLMs that I know how to write that CLAUDE.md so it sticks to best practices. YMMV.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#39
I often use LLMs for method level implementation work. Anything beyond the scope of a single function call I have very little confidence in. This is OK though, since everything is a function and I can perfectly control the blast radius as long as I keep my hands on the steering wheel. I don't ever let the LLM define method signatures for me.

If I don't know how to structure functions around a problem, I will also use the LLM, but I am asking it to write zero code in this case. I am just having a conversation about what would be good paths to consider.

Re: Survey: a third of senior developers say over half their code is AI-generated

#40
post #14

“AI” is great for coding in the small, it’s like having a powerful semantic code editor, or pairing with a junior developer who can lookup some info online quickly. The hardest part of the job was never typing or figuring out some API bullshit anyway. But trying to use it like “please write this entire feature for me” (what vibe coding is supposed to mean) is the wrong way to handle the tool IMO. It turns into a spec…

Yes, but in my experience actually no. At least not with the bleeding edge models today. I've been able to get LLMs to write whole features to the point that I'm quite surprised at the result. Perhaps I'm talking to it right (the new "holding it right"?). I tend to begin asking for an empty application with the characteristics I want (CLI, has subcommands, ...) then I ask it to add a simple feature. Get that working…

> I tend to begin asking for an empty application with the characteristics I want (CLI, has subcommands, ...) then I ask it to add a simple feature.

That makes sense, as you're breaking the task into smaller achievable tasks. But it takes an already experienced developer to think like this.

Instead, a lot of people in the hype train are pretending an AI can work an idea to production from a "CEO level" of detail – that probably ain't happening.

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