OpenClaw's Peter Steinberger: AI Coding's Not Just a Vibe

Peter Steinberger, the mind behind OpenClaw, has a beef with the term 'vibe coding.' It's a phrase that's gained traction, but he's not buying it. In a conversation on OpenAI's podcast, he compared coding with AI to the art of playing the guitar. And he's got a point. Calling it vibe coding might make it sound like anyone can do it, but Steinberger insists it's a skill.

OpenClaw, originally dubbed Clawdbot, was crafted using OpenAI's Codex. Steinberger's not new to the game either, having founded PSPDFKit before creating his viral AI agent. For him, AI coding isn't just prompts thrown at a machine. It's a craft. And his past experience as a manager only sharpened those skills, teaching him to trust and understand others' code without nitpicking every line.

While 'vibe coding' surged as a buzzword in 2025, even becoming a word of the year candidate, it's not universally loved. Andrew Ng and Andrej Karpathy, big names in AI, think it’s misleading too. Meanwhile, Steinberger’s approach has led to a job at OpenAI, with Sam Altman praising him as a genius. So, if AI coding is like playing music, Steinberger's got the chords down.

The builders never left. As AI tools make their way into more industries, the term 'vibe coding' might fade, but the skill behind it won't. Watch the utility, not the noise.