Karen Brennan, Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Practice in Learning Technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, described on Apr. 1 how ‘vibe coding’—the practice of creating software with artificial intelligence without needing to understand the underlying code—is changing how people approach technology.
Brennan said that vibe coding allows more people to create software by describing what they want in plain language, letting AI generate the program. She explained that this process opens up opportunities for those without technical backgrounds but also raises questions about responsibility and quality.
In a recent six-week course at Harvard, Brennan and her doctoral student Jacob Wolf introduced students to vibe coding tools such as Replit, Figma Make, and Claude Code. “The central question motivating the course was: How do we think about AI as a creative partner?” Brennan said. The course encouraged hands-on creation paired with critical analysis through readings from both classic computer science texts and contemporary critiques.
Brennan noted that vibe coding democratizes software creation by lowering barriers for experimentation but also pointed out limitations such as environmental impact, cost, and reliance on strong verbal communication skills. She observed that students sometimes struggled when their prompts did not yield desired results from AI tools: “Vibe coding privileges people who are strong verbal communicators, which is an important equity consideration.”
While professional software engineers focus on reliability and safety, Brennan distinguished vibe coding as being optimized for rapid prototyping rather than long-term maintainability or security concerns. Despite differences in experience levels among students, she found common ground in their enjoyment of bringing ideas to life through collaboration with AI.
Looking ahead, Brennan hopes more people will have access to vibe coding experiences but acknowledged challenges related to cost and potential impacts on critical thinking if adopted widely in schools. She concluded that practices developed through vibe coding—such as imagining possibilities clearly expressing goals, reviewing outcomes critically—will become increasingly valuable as technology advances.
