Google CEO Sundar Pichai Embraces 'Vibe Coding' with AI: A New Era of Web Development

Sundar Pichai Loves Vibe Coding with Cursor and Replit | AIM

In two recent interviews, one with Bloomberg and another with The Verge, he shared how today's web development environment compares with the past. "I've just been messing around with it, either with Cursor or like I coded with Replit, trying to build a custom web page with all the sources of information I wanted in one place," he told Bloomberg. "It's exciting to see how casually you can do it now... compared to the early days of coding, things have come a long way." Speaking to The Verge, Pichai reflected on how much power is now available to developers. "I was vibe coding with Replit a few weeks ago," he said. "The power of the future you're gonna be able to create on the web, we haven't given that power to developers in 25 years." Pichai said that while it's easier to start coding today, the role of software engineers hasn't gone away. He further added that AI tools are changing how people approach coding, making it easier to experiment without losing the need for strong technical work. During the recent earnings call, Pichai said that more than 30% of the code written at Google is now created with help from AI. Google recently launched a new Firebase Studio, which refines its mobile development platform, Firebase, into an end-to-end platform to accelerate the complete application lifecycle. Firebase Studio is a cloud-based agentic development environment powered by Gemini. It includes everything a developer needs to create and publish production-ready AI apps quickly. The new offering aims to mix the capabilities of Gemini, Genkit, and Project IDX with Firebase services to provide a native agentic experience.

Google's CEO Is Spending His Free Time 'Vibe Coding' a Webpage with AI: 'I've Just Been Messing Around'

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai disclosed that he has been "vibe coding," or using AI to code for him through prompts, to build a webpage. Pichai said on Wednesday at Bloomberg Tech in San Francisco that he had been experimenting with AI coding assistants Cursor and Replit, both of which are advertised as able to create code from text prompts, to build a new webpage. Related: Here's How Much a Typical Google Employee Makes in a Year "I've just been messing around -- either with Cursor or I vibe coded with Replit -- trying to build a custom webpage with all the sources of information I wanted in one place," Pichai said, per Business Insider. Pichai said that he had "partially" completed the webpage, and that coding had "come a long way" from its early days. Vibe coding is a term coined by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. In a post on X in February, Karpathy described how AI tools are getting good enough that software developers can "forget that the code even exists." Instead, they can ask for AI to code on their behalf and create a project or web app without writing a line of code themselves. The rise of vibe coding has led AI coding assistants to explode in popularity. One AI coding tool, Cursor, became the fastest-growing software app to reach $100 million in annual revenue in January. Almost all of Cursor's revenue comes from 360,000 individual subscribers, not big enterprises. However, that balance could change: As of earlier this week, Amazon is reportedly in talks to adopt Cursor for its employees. Noncoders are using vibe coding to bring their ideas to life. Lenard Flören, a 28-year-old art director with no prior coding experience, told NBC News last month that he used AI tools to vibe code a personalized workout tracking app. Harvard University neuroscience student, Rishab Jain, 20, told the outlet that he used Replit to vibe code an app that translates ancient texts into English. Instead of downloading someone else's app and paying a subscription fee, "now you can just make it," Jain said. Popular vibe coding tools offer a free entry point into vibe coding, as well as subscription plans. Replit has a free tier, a $20 a month core level with expanded capabilities, such as unlimited private and public apps, and a $35 per user, per month teams subscription. Cursor also has a free tier, a $20 per month pro level, and a $40 per user, per month, business subscription. Despite the existence of vibe coding, Pichai still thinks that human software engineers are necessary. At Bloomberg Tech on Wednesday, Pichai said that Google will keep hiring human engineers and growing its engineering workforce "even into next year" because a bigger workforce "allows us to do more." "I just view this [AI] as making engineers dramatically more productive," he said.