Cursor CEO warns that mood coding builds ‘shaky foundations’ and eventually ‘things start to fall apart’
Cursor can use AI to help programmers code, but don’t call it mood coding, said CEO and co-founder Michael Truell.
Ten years ago, programming meant typing code into a blank word processor and editing it manually. But with the advent of generative AI, this type of programming is quickly becoming a thing of the past, he explains.
“Increasingly, you can step back from the code and have an AI do tasks end-to-end for you,” Truell said at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference earlier this month.
Still, programmers may not want to backtrack too much, he added, emphasizing that there are levels to AI-assisted coding.
The oft-repeated term “vibe coding” may seem to sum up all AI coding wizards. In reality, it suggests amateur builders or inexperienced AI users trying to bring an idea to life without necessarily looking under the hood.
“Vibrational coding refers to a method of coding with AI where you close your eyes and don’t look at the code at all and you just ask the AI to go build the thing for you,” he said.
Truell likened it to building a house by putting up four walls and a roof without knowing what’s going on under the floor or with the wiring.
This coding method may be perfect for AI users looking to quickly simulate a game or website, but when it comes to more advanced programming, things can go wrong, he warned.
“If you close your eyes and don’t look at the code and AIs are building things with shaky foundations as you add another floor, and another floor, and another floor, and another floor, things start to fall apart,” he said.
With Cursor, on the other hand, programmers can integrate AI directly into the integrated development environment where they write their code. Using the context of existing code, or even an entire code base, it can often predict the next line. The tool includes everything from multi-line autocomplete to full function generation. It can also help a programmer debug their code and explain errors.
Although she’s only 25, Truell’s vision for AI coding carries real weight. He and three other graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created what would become Cursor as a project in 2022.
Since then, Cursor has become one of the most popular coding assistants, with one million daily users earlier this year, Bloomberg reported. Since its launch, the company has reached $1 billion in annualized revenue and amassed 300 employees, according to CNBC.
Cursor received its first investment of $8 million from OpenAI’s Startup Fund in 2023. It later raised millions more from some of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capitalists, including Andreessen Horowitz. Fast forward to 2025, and the company has closed a $2.3 billion funding round for a post-money valuation of $29.3 billion.
Even though mood coders are flying blind, Truell said the Cursor coding wizard is the best of both worlds, helping his expert clients get into the finer details of their code.
“But where you want to step back and ask AI to do something end-to-end, you can do that too,” he said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
