Tired of wrestling with syntax? Just go with the vibes. That’s the essence of vibe coding, Collins’ Word of the Year 2025, a term that captures something fundamental about our evolving relationship with technology. Coined by AI pioneer Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding refers to the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to write computer code. Basically, telling a machine what you want rather than painstakingly coding it yourself. It’s programming by vibes, not variables. While tech experts debate whether it’s revolutionary or reckless, the term has resonated far beyond Silicon Valley, speaking to a broader cultural shift towards AI-assisted everything in everyday life. In fact, much of the Collins’ Word of the Year shortlist reflects this further shift towards a tech-dominated world. But the runners-up on this year’s list also reveal a society grappling with authenticity in an increasingly performative world. Perhaps we’re all a bit too focused on aura farming, …