AI-powered ‘vibe-coding’ is filling our app stores with garbage

July 26, 2026 — 12:06pm

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Apps created by AI are pouring in to Apple’s App Store, but no one appears to be actually downloading them. And unless platform-holders find a way to adjust their policies, these “vibe-coded” products are likely to hurt authentic developers and consumers alike, along with the platforms themselves.

Thanks to AI models that can code, non-technical users can now whip up functioning software in a week, or even in an afternoon, which would previously have required specialist programming know-how. This so-called vibe-coding is sometimes hailed as a democratisation of creative and productive tools.

But while it has been adopted as a sort of sidekick by skilled programmers, and deployed by well-meaning hobbyists looking for a niche custom solution, it has also become the bane of any open code repository or community programming project, as anyone can now create and submit code without the faintest idea of how it works.

Of course, grifters have descended on the largest app stores with apps designed to make a quick buck, which in some cases are riddled with issues. You can now pay a monthly fee for access to platforms that use the latest AI models to turn any thought you have into something you can submit to Apple, complete with the app itself, images, descriptions, documentations, and analytics to track your........

© Brisbane Times