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Hello, and welcome back to Fast Companys Plugged In. Programming, as it turns out, is just typing. Talking at Ciscos AI Summit in San Francisco on February 3, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made that pithy observation to sum up the phenomenon of people using AI coding tools to simply describe in plain language software they want to exist, with an algorithm doing the heavy lifting. The comment came during a wild, wide-ranging riff on how AI is changing the world, and Huang kept joking that his chatter might have been influenced by several glasses of wine. (Hey, he was the after-dinner speaker.) But even if alcohol-fueled poetic license was involved, the sentiment captured the present moment. The earliest evidence that AI could transform how people program computers came even before ChatGPTs arrival, dating to when GitHub released the first version of its Copilot in 2021. At that point, AI was autocompleting snippets of code for humans rather than generating software from scratch. The progress has been radical since then, reflected in the boom for coding agents such as Cursor, Windsurf, Replit, and the industrys current darling, Anthropics Claude Code. Along the way, the act of willing software into reality through AI got a name: vibe coding. At the Cisco event, Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Andreessen Horowitz cofounder Marc Andreessen, and other Silicon Valley luminaries talked about the whole industry having arrived at a crucial juncture in the pivot to AI software generation. Anthropics chief product officer, Mike Krieger, whose boss, Dario Amodei, predicted last March that AI would be writing essentially all of the code within a year, suggested thats in the neighborhood of coming trueat least at Anthropic: Right now, for most products . . . it’s effectively 100%. Along with potentially upending the entire tech industry, AIs ability to write programs could have a powerful democratizing effect on how the world uses technology. For the past few decades, most people who use computers have been wholly dependent on software written by trained professionals. What happens when that trained professional might be an algorithm, available to the masses to create whatever pops into their minds? Ive been exploring that question since last March, when I used Replit to bring my dream note-taking app to life. The experience was amazing enough that I put up with Replits many rough edges, including its iffy debugging skills, repeated introduction of security flaws, and sycophantic tendency to tell me my ideas were pure genius. Since then, I have had better luck with new and improved versions of the service. Ive also dabbled with several other coding platforms with increasingly impressive results. But Claude Code, which Ive been using recently to reimagine a game I wrote back in high school, is the most uncanny of them all. As a lark, I fed it my 1980s BASIC code, expecting it would have no clue what to do with something written in such an obsolete language. Instead, it roughed out a modern, web-native version in minutes. Since then, weClaude Code and Ihave been collaborating to improve the game and dress up its graphics. I say we because it truly feels like were working as a team. Claude builds out my ideas without me having to spell them out in excruciating detail, and sometimes comes up with ones of its own. Its ability to understand what I want the game to do, and why, can feel like it borders on the clairvoyant. When Ive finished fooling around with the new versionsoonIll share it here so you can judge the results for yourself. (Full disclosure: I had one bizarre issue with Claude Code. For a few days, it labored under the mistaken understanding that some of my requests were examples of prompt injectiona nefarious third party issuing commands meant to interfere with the projectand kept assuring me that it was ignoring them. Despite that, it continued to code up a storm. I asked Anthropic what was going on, but the company hasnt yet provided an explanation.) Quirks and all, Im thoroughly enjoying making AI-generated software. But I do confess that its brought out my inner Edsger Dijkstra. A celebrated computer scientist and A.M. Turing Award winner, Dijkstra bristled at the notion that anyone should be able to create software. He maintained that proper programming required an especially deep understanding of mathematics. Mere mortals shouldnt even try. In a 1975 essay, Dijkstra ripped into BASIC, the language I used to write the original version of my game. Created at Dartmouth in 1964 and initially intended for non-techie liberal arts majors, BASIC emphasized approachability over elegance. Instead of demanding too much from these neophytes, it was simple to learn and tolerated sloppy code. He hated it. As someone who once programmed a fair amount but allowed my skills to atrophy, I am nagged by the fear that vibe coding is a form of cheating. It feels too easy. Im also bothered by the fact that I dont fully understand the code Claude wrote, and in fact have barely glanced at it. In short, I havent been entirely comfortable with the prospect of software becoming something that anyone can make. Dijkstra, who died in 2002, isnt around to chime in on Claude Code or other forms of vibe coding. I cant imagine hed be thrilled with them, though. In many cases, their algorithms seem to settle for the most expedient approach to a job, resulting in software that may be less than optimal even if it gets the job done. I cheerfully admit to being unqualified to judge Claudes coding proficiency, but my high school programming buddy Charles, who went on to become a professional developer, took a peek and deemed some of its techniques cringe-worthy. Legitimate reasons exist to be skittish about the quality of vibe-coded software, particularly on the security front. Last week, an app called Moltbooka social network for AI agents< .="" href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/01/ai-agents-now-have-their-own-reddit-style-social-network-and-its-getting-weird-fast/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">made quite a splash. According to security firm Wiz, it also left its database of user information vulnerable to leaks, due to a misconfigured server. Vibe coding may have been to blame. My reluctance to be responsible for assuring other peoples privacy is the biggest reason why I havent shared any of the productivity apps Ive vibe coded for myself. Presumably, software companies with human engineers in the loopsuch as Nvidia and Anthropichave charged them with vetting the robustness of AIs handiwork. Its tough to imagine the day coming when that isnt essential. Still, I am slowly getting around to the belief that vibe coding is not an alternative to coding, but a legitimate form of it. Even the most gifted programmer typically needs help translating their work into something a computer can understand. Most of them rely on high-level programming languages that break tasks into the reduced set of low-level instructions a processor performs natively. Until now, those high-level languages have had names such as Python, JavaScript, Swift, and C++. Thanks to remarkable tools such as Claude Code, they can now have names like English. Im looking forward to seeing what happens once the floodgates break wide open. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on fastcompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company The real reasons Elon Musk merged xAI and SpaceXIt’s all about this sci-fi fantasy. Read More Anthropic takes aim at chatbot adswith its own Super Bowl adThe company’s tongue-in-cheek spots highlight concerns about advertising inside AI assistants and provoke a sharp response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Read More How the Epstein files reignited the rich and powerfuls oldest grudgesFrom Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman to Ben Shapiro and Steve Bannon, the latest Epstein disclosures are giving powerful rivals fresh material to settle old scores. Read More Celebrating Cultures That Power InnovationBest Workplaces for Innovators celebrates cultures that empower employees to improve, build, and invent. Apply today to be recognized where ideas thrive and innovation drives impact. Apply Today TikTok is fueling a SoulCycle comebackThe boutique spin giant is riding a wave of 2016 nostalgia back into the spotlight, and Gen Zers are on board. Read More This super simple tripod is designed for the modern ageManfrotto worked with Layer to design an easy-to-use tripod built for the new era of content creation. Read More AI is about to invade the real world2026 is the year the technology gets physical. Read More
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E-Commerce
Organizational leaders are witnessing a steep and unprecedented rise in employee healthcare costs that is eroding bottom-line profitability. According to data from the Business Group on Health, these costs are projected to rise by 9% this year, representing a 62% increase since 2017. To put it in perspective, this represents an incremental hit of nearly $1 million to the bottom line for a midsize organization of 500 people. What CFOs are now confronting is a tipping point where the average total cost to insure an employee is nearing $20,000 annually. Notably, it is specifically mental health claims that are driving the spike. PwCs 2026 Medical Trend report shows that inpatient mental health claims have jumped a staggering 80% in the last 24 months. For years, the corporate world has treated employee mental health as an imported problempersonal struggles that people bring with them into the workplace. But the evidence is now irrefutable that how employers manage their employees is having the greater impact and is often the leading driver of the strain. To be very clear, the way we work today has become a primary manufacturer of incremental stress, burnout, and mental health decline. The Smoking Gun: Work is the Cause Until now, the standard corporate response to employee mental health challenges has been to treat the symptoms rather than address the root causes. This means theyve offered workers resilience training, yoga and exercise classes, and sleep and meditation appsall band-aids on a structural wound. The evidence shows that mental health strain is no longer an outlier and is the predictable outcome of employee expectations that exceed the human ability to recover and sustain high levels of productivity. According to the Mental Health America (MHA) data, 84% of workers identified at least one workplace factornot a personal onethat was actively harming their mental health. This suggests that for the vast majority of people, the mental health crisis isnt bred at home; its being created at their desk. Here are three workplace leadership factors causing the most damage: A Deliberate Lack Of Boundaries:With technology allowing people the ability to remain connected to work at all hours, the clear line between when employees workdays start and end has been entirely erased. Not wanting to forfeit productivity, organizations have so far resisted giving people this clarityand workplace managers too often exploit this by texting and e-mailing employees at odd hours and on weekends. Always being on and expected to respond prevents the human nervous system from ever truly recovering. People never get off the treadmill. The Erosion of Human Connection: A focus on efficiencyand doing more with lessincreasingly means workplace leaders are stretched too thin to hold weekly check-in meetings with their teams. Companies are systematically replacing human-to-human coaching with AI systems, providing performance feedback via online dashboards and algorithmic scores. This is a biological disaster; it deprives the human nervous system of the context and connection required to feel safe. It also greatly undermines feelings of belonging, which is known to be the cornerstone of human well-being. The Micromanagement Surge: The rise of digital oversight is slowly creating a pervasive surveillance culture in our workplaces. In the 2024 American Psychological Associations, Work in America survey, 43% of employees reported feeling “monitored” at work in some way, and those who felt monitored were significantly more likely to report poor mental health. The lack of trust makes people feel incapable of doing the job they were hired to do and whittles away at their self-esteem. Furthermore, this lack of agency strips away their sense of control, which is another primary driver of human well-being. The Managerial Squeeze The primary source of employee stress isnt just their draining workloads, it is the person assigning them. The MHA report found that nearly 40% of employees explicitly name their manager as the top cause of their mental health issues. This is further validated by Gallups 2025 State of the Global Workplace Report, which found that managers report higher levels of daily stress and burnout than the people they leada stress contagion that inevitably flows downward to their teams. Its clear that when managers are run thin by layoffs and executive pressure, they often default to transactional and impersonal styles that make people feel devalued and tipped into survival mode. And, whenever human beings feel unsafethat their job is constantly on the linetheyre naturally more likely to break. In the big picture, research shows many workers feel that their bosses are simply not there for them; they dont feel known and respected for who they are outside of work or valued for all they contribute. All of this means that workplace leaders have become stressors rather than stress relievers. The Remedies: A Redirection Of Time And Intention Facing both a financial and moral imperative to neutralize these stressors, organizations must now find the courage to sustainably pivotmoving away from whats effectively been wellness theater and toward structural changes explicitly known to elevate employee well-beingand help restore mental health: Re-establish The On/Off Switch Even if companies choose against establishing a one-size-fits-all remedy, workplace leaders should set explicit dark hours (e.g., 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) for their own teams so people can rejuvenate. This will demand that leaders model and respect those boundaries and remove any stigma currently attached to not responding to messages after work. Nothing says people cant work beyond normal hours if they choose to. Its the expectation of always needing to be on that is the real pain point. Foster Radical Belonging Human beings aren’t built to handle pressure alone, and feeling connected to ones team is what supports resilience and personal thriving. Intentionally creating opportunities for employees to connect socially has become essential today. Leaders must also restore weekly check-ins (and coaching) with all direct reports and allow sufficient time to discuss each persons well-being before focusing on work goals and performance. Look Out For People What people need to flourish are feelings of psychological and emotional safety. So, leaders should ask themselves, Do my employees have work demnds they can reasonably meet? Am I available enough to them as a resource and sounding board? Do my actions demonstrate that I care about each person on and support them individually? Do people feel they have a voice in how their work gets done and in many of the decisions I make? The Heart of the Matter If were learning anything today, its that organizations cannot successfully scale productivity by subtracting humanity. The dramatic rise in healthcare costs and mental health claims reveals the illusion of this, and companies themselves are paying just as great a price as workers. In the end, the most effective mental health support a company can offer is a manager who treats their people humanely.
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E-Commerce
Maybe youre not a hardcore football fan. Maybe youre looking forward to the ads and the halftime show more than the actual Super Bowl LX game. Youre not alonean estimated 40% of the more than 100 million U.S. Super Bowl audience consists of people who dont normally follow football. But even if the names Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts dont ring any bells (the starting quarterbacks of last years Super Bowl contenders, the Kansas City Chiefs and the victorious Philadelphia Eagles), a quick overview of this years big game may come in handy this weekend. Who’s playing The Seattle Seahawks will face the New England Patriots in Santa Claras Levis Stadium on Sunday, February 8, on NBC. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 pm ET. No, you’re not experiencing déj vu These two teams played in Super Bowl XLIX eleven years ago, with the Patriots winning 28-24 in what was, at the time, the biggest Super Bowl 4th quarter comeback ever. Tom Brady led two touchdown drives to bring New England from 10 points down to take the lead, and Russell Wilson threw an interception to little-known Malcolm Butler on the goal line with less than 30 seconds left, sealing the Patriots fourth Super Bowl. Who are Super Bowl LX’s QB’s? New England is led by second year sensation Drake Maye, Seattle by Sam Darnold. Some key facts on Maye: He was the third overall draft choice in 2024 out of North Carolina. Just 23, Maye is set to become the second youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl at 23 years and 162 days. (Dan Marino was just 23 years and 127 days when he started at QB for the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX following the 1984 season.) Mayes brother Luke was a star player for the Tar Heels basketball team. In his second NFL season, Maye led the NFL in completion percentage, yards per pass attempt, passer rating, and various advanced metrics. He finished second in MVP voting (behind Matthew Stafford, quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams). Key facts on Darnold: At 28, Darnold is already playing for his fifth NFL team. He was considered a draft bust after flaming out with the New York Jets, who selected him third overall in the 2018 draft, and then struggling with the Carolina Panthers. He was a backup for San Francisco in 2023. Darnold became the starter at Minnesota in 2024 after rookie J.J. McCarthy suffered a season-ending injury and led the team to the playoffs. Darnold has been stellar for the Seahawks this year, including playing arguably his best game in the NFL in the NFC Championship win over the Rams, sealing a trip to Super Bowl LX for Seattle. Key facts about the two head coaches Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel has the chance to become the first person to win a Super Bowl as both player and head coach for the same franchise. Hes in his first season with the team, and orchestrated a turnaround from eight combined wins over the last two seasons to a 14-3 regular season and a trip to the Super Bowl. Vrabel was a star linebacker for New England during the first decade of the Brady-Belichick era, and participated in three Super Bowl championships. The NFL Coach of the Year as head coach of the Tennessee Titans in 2021, Vrabel was let go after 2023. Mike Macdonald is in his second season as head coach of the Seahawks. Just 38, he has the chance to be one of the youngest coaches to win the Big Game if his team comes out on top in Super Bowl LX. Regarded as a defensive savant, he was a longtime assistant for John Harbaugh with the Ravens, and also spent a season as Jim Harbaughs defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan. He then went back to the Ravens as their defensive coordinator before earning the head coaching job in Seattle. Other star players in the game Patriots veteran wide receiver Stefon Diggs has made four Pro Bowls in his career, all with New Englands division rival, the Buffalo Bills. He is perhaps most well-known for catching the Minneapolis Miracle to defeat the New Orleans Saints as a member of the Vikings in the 2018 NFL Playoffs. Diggs is currently in a romantic relationship with rapper Cardi B. The two welcomed a baby boy in November 2025. Diggs is also facing felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault charges stemming from an incident with his former private chef in December. On the defensive side of the ball, New Englands stars are defensive tackles Milton Williamsa big money free agent signing from last years Super Bowl champion Eaglesand Christian Barmorewho like Diggs is also currently facing assault chargesas well as third year cornerback Christian Gonzaleza two-time All-Pro who intercepted Jarrett Stidhams pass in the AFC Championship game to all but seal the win. Seattle wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the NFL in receiving yards this season as a 23-year-old. He burst onto the scene as part of a stacked Ohio State team a few years before entering the league. Hes flanked by Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp, who left the Rams after eight seasons last offseason to join the Seahawks. The Seahawks have the leagues top scoring defense, allowing opponents just 17.2 points per game. The lineup features three second team All-Pro selections. Linebacker Ernest Jones, veteran defensive tackle Leonard Williams, and young superstar cornerback Devon Witherspoon all received those honors from the league, while 33-year-old defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence is also having a career resurgence, making the Pro Bowl. Who owns the teams? Under Robert Krafts ownership, the Patriots have been the most successful team in the NFL. A former season-ticket holder, Kraft bought the team, kept it in New England amidst challenges to move the franchise, and oversaw the entirety of the Brady-Belichick dynasty. This is the 12th Super Bowl appearance for the Patriots under Krafts ownership. The teams Big Game record going into SB LX is 6-5. Micrsoft co-founder Paul Allens sister, Jody Allen, has been the de facto owner of the Seahawks since Pauls death in 2018. Reports emerged last week that Allen is looking to sell the team after the Super Bowl, but the ownership group refuted those reports. Why people are talking about the announcer One of his generations most popular announcers, 59-year-old Mike Tirico will make his Super Bowl play-by-play debut. He has hosted Super Bowl pregame and postgame coverage, as well as serving as NBCs Olympics host, but will have his first opportunity to call the Big Game on Sunday. Former NFL wide receiver Cris Collinsworth is no stranger to calling the Super Bowl, as hell have his sixth opportunity to do Super Bowl color commentary. What about halftime? Fresh off his Album of the Year Grammy win, international sensation Bad Bunny will perform at halftime. Selection of the 31-year-old native Puerto Rican sparked some controversy within the MAGA crowd as he’s a vocal opponent of Donald Trump and performs in Spanish. He has nearly 84 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Who is favored to win? The Seahawks are approximately 4.5 point favorites, meaning that sportsbooks expect Seattle to win by four or five points. For a modern Super Bowl, thats a fairly big line. Nobody has been favored by more than that in a Super Bowl in over a decade, per Sportsoddshistory.com. What’s at stake? If Seattle wins, it will be the franchises second Super Bowl, and will avenge the loss in Super Bowl XLIX back in 2015, when the Patriots denied the Seahawks from winning two in a row. For New England, a win would mean an NFL record seventh Super Bowl, all coming within the last 25 years.
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E-Commerce
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