"Look Ma, no hands!" vibe coding, as described by Karpathy, where you never look at the code being generated, was never a good idea, and still isn't. Some people are now misusing "vibe coding" to describe any use of LLMs for coding, but there is a world of difference between using LLMs in an intelligent considered way as part of the software development process, and taking a hit on the bong and "vibe coding" another "how many calories in this plate of food" app.

Karpathy himself has used "vibe coding" to describe "usage of LLMs for coding," so it's fair to say the definition has expanded.

https://karpathy.bearblog.dev/year-in-review-2025/