Vibe Coding: Program with Words, Not Code

💼 In Today’s 5-min AI Brief

• Your Everyday AI Toolkit: Explore DIA, an AI-powered web browser that works like your very own personal assistant

• Prompt of the Week: A fill-in-the-blank prompt to steer AI’s style, tone, and design to build your own webpage

• AI News You Can Use: Why vibe coding levels the playing field for small teams, Project Astra’s big reveal, and Microsoft’s AI Tool beats doctors in diagnosing complex conditions

• What I’m Learning: Software is evolving into natural language instructions, and Brandlight.ai & Xfunnels being tools to watch

Andrej Karpathy coined the term “vibe coding” on X to describe a subtle but powerful design skill: using words to steer an AI’s style, tone, and intent without rigid rules.

But what is vibe coding and why does it matter? Simply put, vibe coding means describing how something should look and feel so AI can write the code for you. This gives anyone the chance to build and customize without needing to be a developer.

In today’s Brief, I will walk you through why vibe coding might offer you a competitive advantage, explain the capabilities of an AI-powered web browser, discuss the shift into “Software 3.0”, and more.

🛠️ Your Everyday AI Toolkit

DIA - The AI-Powered Web Browser That Works for You

DIA is an AI-powered browser designed to be your research assistant, summarizer, and productivity tool, all in one. If you’re still using traditional browsers, here are 3 DIA features to try out that can instantly upgrade how you work online:

1. Video Assistant

• Watching a long YouTube video?

• Hit Command-E while it’s playing.

• Ask DIA: “Summarize this video with chapter timestamps.”

• Get a clear outline you can skip through, saving time on tutorials or interviews.

2. LinkedIn Insights

• Open your LinkedIn feed in a DIA tab.

• Hit Command+T to open a new tab.

• Type @, select your LinkedIn tab.

• Ask:

  • “Summarize my LinkedIn feed.”

  • “What are the top 5 insights here worth my time?”

• DIA can pull key trends so you don’t scroll aimlessly.

3. Smart Shopping Helper

• Look at a product page (say, a planter for your snake plant).

• Open a new tab, type @, select the product tab.

• Ask: “What are cheaper alternatives for this?”

• DIA compares prices, specs, and reviews across the web so you can make better choices.

Takeaway:

DIA doesn’t just browse the web - it works the web for you. If your goal is to save time and make smarter decisions online, it’s worth a serious look.

💭 Prompt of the Week

If you want to test vibe coding without spending a dime, start with ChatGPT’s free tier (chat.openai.com). Even the free model can turn natural-language instructions into HTML/CSS, simple JavaScript. Use the prompt above and fill in the blanks, and publish the code in GitHub Pages (free), Replit (free tier), or Netlify (free tier) to get your website up and running. 

Example: 

“Write HTML and CSS for a landing page that feels bold, sleek, and trustworthy. The goal is to get email signups from small business owners. Use our brand color #FF6600 for the header and our logo as the cursor.”

💡 AI News You Can Use

Why Vibe Coding is a Game-Changer for Small Teams

Hiring a developer isn’t cheap - and for many small businesses and those who are self-employed, it’s not even on the table. That’s where vibe coding offers a real competitive advantage. 

Instead of paying someone to hand-code every feature, you can describe what you want in plain language and have AI generate the code for you. It turns complex instructions into natural conversation.

Imagine telling your AI “Create a homepage with a bright blue header, a minimal look, and use our brand logo as the cursor.” The AI handles all the details while you stay focused on the vision.

Why it matters for small businesses:

• Cuts down on expensive dev hours

• Opens up customization without deep technical skills

• Speeds up testing new ideas, designs, and features

• Empowers non-technical teams to build and iterate faster

Early adopters are using vibe coding to prototype websites, automate tasks, and customize customer experiences without waiting on a dev queue. Vibe coding helps you turn your ideas into working solutions, even without a full-time developer on payroll.

Last Week in AI

• Project Astra - At Google I/O, Google previewed Project Astra, an early prototype of a real-time, multimodal AI agent that can see, hear, and respond to its surroundings. It’s a step toward more natural, hands-free interactions where you can simply talk to AI to get things done. 

  • This is especially promising for students who need fast problem solving or on-the-spot tutoring support. A super impressive release. 

• Microsoft says its new tool, MAI-DxO (AI Diagnostic Orchestrator), can tackle tough medical cases with remarkable accuracy. It correctly diagnosed 85.5% of the most complex cases from the New England Journal of Medicine, compared to just 20% for a group of experienced doctors.

  • This is a clear sign of how quickly AI is moving from a support role to a subject matter expert.

📖 What I’m Learning

If you’re interested in what I’ve been digging into… check out:

1. Software is Changing (Again) - Drawing on his experience at Stanford, OpenAI, and Tesla, Andrej Karpathy describes a new shift he calls “Software 3.0,” where natural language becomes the primary way we instruct computers, and AI models handle the implementation behind the scenes.

2. How To Keep Up with AI Optimization - TJ Robertson breaks down some common best practices and resources to keep up with the AI goldrush, Xfunnels and Brandlight.ai being amongst the top recommended tools to keep an eye on.

3. The Master Prompt Method that Customizes AI for Your Business - Tiago Forte shows you step-by-step how to turn ChatGPT into your personal business strategist with just one document.

Final Thoughts

Vibe coding is just a small preview of where work is headed.

As AI systems get better at translating natural language into code, design, and strategy, the real skill will be communicating intent clearly. It means moving from “how do I build this?” to “how do I describe what I want so AI can build it for me?”

If you want to future-proof your role, start practicing now. Don’t just think like a user of AI tools. Think like a creative director for AI. Define the vision. Shape the vibe. Let the machine handle the syntax.

Because in the era of Software 3.0, words are your new development environment.

Thaddeus