Business on AI mistakes: freelancers started earning by fixing vibe coding errors

With the increasing popularity of artificial intelligence, entirely new methods of programming have begun to emerge, such as "vibe coding," where AI bots write all the code instead of humans. However, in most cases, this code is problematic or breaks over time. In response, freelancers and entire companies offering bug-fixing services have begun to appear.

As vibecoding has become more popular, so has the need for people to clean up AI-written code, according to 404 Media. This has been done by both individual freelancers and new companies like Ulam Labs, whose website says, "We clean up after vibecoding. Literally."

Hamid Siddiqi, one of the freelancers who fixes problems for users who have been doing vibe coding, says he regularly works with 15-20 clients and sometimes gets additional projects throughout the year. He offers his services on the global freelance platform Fiverr.

"I started fixing vibe-coded projects because I noticed a growing number of developers and small teams struggling to refine AI-generated code that was functional but lacked the polish or ‘vibe’ needed to align with their vision. I saw an opportunity to bridge that gap, combining my coding expertise with an eye for aesthetic and user experience," said Siddiqi.

According to the freelancer, the most common problems in projects created by artificial intelligence are inconsistent UI/UX, poorly optimized code that degrades performance, misaligned branding elements, and features that seem to work but feel clunky or unintuitive.

Another example is VibeCodeFixers.com, a website created by Swatantra Sohni. It allows people with AI-powered projects to find experienced developers to fix bugs. The founder says the site has only connected 30-40 projects with experts so far, but that's because Sohni hasn't promoted his service in any way and has focused on getting as many developers as possible involved.

"Most of these vibe developers are either product managers or salespeople or small business owners, and they think they can build something. So for them it’s more prototyping. Right now vibe coding is in its early stages. It’s very convenient for conveying the prototype they want, but I don’t think they really intend to make it like a production-grade app," Sohni said.

In addition, Sohni notes that a big problem for vibe developers is "credit burn," or the money developers pay to use AI in the last 10-20% of a project’s development. He notes that when you try to add new features to a project created by AI using that same AI, something breaks. In such cases, it becomes easier to build an app from scratch than to try to fix a vibe coding problem, but out of a desire to preserve their progress, developers turn to experienced engineers to fix the situation.