Matt Stoller thinks #AI software is going to replace established #saas tools because he vibe coded a utility with no logging, no security, no audit/compliance and very little complexity and but thinks he's 85-90% of the way there and that...
> poorly done AI-built software is just not that much worse than what exists now
Oh my sweet summer child, if you truly think that, you ain't seen nothing yet! Just wait for all the CEOs to f*** around and find out that vibe coding "systems of record" might not be the best idea if you want to keep your S/ME solvent/afloat and free from legal challenges and fines.
I do agree with the main thrust of "SaaS companies are evil, enshittifiying gatekeepers" but to claim AI could soon just magically replace this stuff is completely mad.
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-the-2-trillion
/Cc @davidgerard
Discussion
Loading...
Oh my sweet summer child, if you truly think that, you ain't seen nothing yet! Just wait for all the CEOs to f*** around and find out that vibe coding "systems of record" might not be the best idea if you want to keep your S/ME solvent/afloat and free from legal challenges and fines.
It's been a while since I dealt with in-house software from non-tech companies, but back then most of them were VB (VB6 if you were lucky, often some VB2 things written for Windows 3.11 that were now being run on XP). And they used an Access database as the backend storage.
EDIT: Rereading this, I can't tell whether I think vibecoded things will be better or worse than this. Most of these codebases that I encountered were written by someone who left the company 5+ years ago. Several of them had lost the source code. And they were critical parts of the companies' workflows. It may be that I've found a use case for vibecoded things: replacing ancient VB6 with missing source code that no one understands with modern web apps with unreadable source code that no one understands.
@davidgerard @david_chisnall I suppose it depends on the use case and the attack surface area but my assumption would be that an older application has been battle tested somewhat over a few years is probably better than something a non-techie had ChatGPT belch out in an afternoon, especially thinking about things like correct auth behaviour (there was a screenshot doing the rounds of an OTP interface where the code was just shown on the window e.g "we just sent the secret code 123456 to your phone. Enter it here when you get it...").
> I've found a use case for vibecoded things: replacing ancient VB6 with missing source code that no one understands with modern web apps with unreadable source code that no one understands.
I did a stint at IBM about 10 years ago and they were trying to automate moving from cobol apps written by long-dead developers in the 1960s to java - from what I hear this is still a thing they are trying and failing to crack! z/OS and COBOL will outlive the genai bubble and probably us!
@svines @david_chisnall That One Excel Spreadsheet will be the new Win32