There’s a camp of people who think that AI will lead to the Internet being filled with slop content and projects. While I think there’s some truth to it, I believe it would come from the same profile of people who would have published low-quality content or software anyway, seeking everything but good craft. It’s just that now they can do more of it in less time, so it’s more noticeable.

This is something I’ve been thinking about for the past few days while using Linear, a project that shows there are product builders who still place craft front and center and build products that are a joy to use. They do AI too, and likely use AI to build the product, but you don’t see its quality being compromised. Compare that with the many projects popping up that let AI decide the product experience and design interface. They all look the same, with UIs that scream not to use them. A bit of this already started happening when the internet filled with Tailwind components that people copied and pasted to build component kits upon. The models learned from this and now prioritize it over standards, spitting out the same components that everyone uses to build their SaaS.

I get it. You’re a developer, can’t afford to hire a designer, and you want your creation to look good enough. So you trust AI with the uppermost layer that people will be interfacing with all the time. Perhaps that’ll lead you to revenue you’re happy with, or it’s good enough for validating an idea, but as I said, your product will look like the many other similar products that have come from the AI factory. You likely review the code written by AI before putting it into production and lean on your seniority to make some judgment and tweaks, but you don’t do the same with the design.

Some people might be okay with that and enjoy using those products. I don’t. There’s something unique about interacting with very well-thought-out craft. Perhaps AI models will develop this attention to detail in design, but I doubt it. I think there’s something about it that can’t be captured by statistical models. But who knows, maybe it becomes too creative, with hallucination as a feature, and comes up with designs humans wouldn’t have thought of. Anything is possible. But today, nothing that comes from it is something I have joy using. I open the website and leave right away.

It’s hard to disregard capitalism in all this conversation. It’s true that our tech industry is the software industry embedded in capitalism, and as such, the ultimate goal is optimizing capital. Without enough care, this can lead many to compromise the quality of what they build. We’ve always seen that, and we’ll continue to see it in the tech industry and many other industries. However, there will always be people and companies that reconcile with the world and place craft excellence above everything else. That’s the reason why we have companies like Apple or Linear, and why consumers lean toward buying an iPhone. Imagine if its software and UI were vibe-crafted without an eye on the final result. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.


So where does this leave us? AI is a tool, and like any tool, it amplifies the intentions of those who wield it. If your intention is to ship fast and move on, AI will help you do that, but the result will show it. If your intention is to build something people genuinely love to use, AI can still help, but only if you apply the same critical eye to the output that you would to any other part of your craft. The choice between speed and quality has always existed. AI just makes that choice more visible, more quickly.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​