🎨 David Baird on AI as Creative Expression: The Origins of VibeCoding

At the July 14th VibeCoding event at Bamboo Royal Oak, David Baird, founder of MySalt.ai, opened the night with a deeply personal reflection on the intersection of creativity and technology — and the story of how VibeCoding came to be.

A former musician turned technologist, David’s approach to AI isn’t just functional — it’s expressive. He compared coding with AI to songwriting:

“AI feels like painting with technology — the way I used to build a song as a musician.”

🧪 From Jam Sessions to Code Prompts

David explained how his journey began by collaborating with engineers, experimenting with GPT, and building AI tooling to support his own curiosity. That led to the birth of VibeCoding — an open, exploratory space for people building with AI who might not fit into traditional developer molds.

His philosophy is simple:

• You don’t need to be a master coder to build with AI

• You do need to learn the tools, be curious, and build iteratively

• And most importantly — share your experiments with others

“You’ve got engineers who resist AI — and those who embrace it as their superpower. VibeCoding is where those two worlds meet.”

🛠️ Practical Wisdom for AI-Enhanced Development

David also shared battle-tested best practices for anyone experimenting with AI tools:

🧭 1. Use Rule-Based Prompting

Tools like Cursor allow you to set custom behaviors and rules for how your AI agent should respond. Setting context early reduces friction later.

🔐 2. Think Security Early

He recommended using tools like Replit’s built-in security scan to automatically detect vulnerabilities — even in AI-generated code.

📦 3. Avoid Sole Reliance on the AI

Learn to debug with browser dev tools, understand how your code works, and treat the AI as a partner, not a crutch.

“If you don’t understand what the AI is doing, you’re not building — you’re guessing.”

🌱 From Music to Models: Why It Matters

David’s presence at the event reminded everyone that AI is as much a cultural shift as a technical one. His passion for helping others understand, play, and create with AI is what defines VibeCoding’s ethos.

If you're someone who:

• Wants to explore AI but doesn’t know where to start

• Thinks visually, musically, or intuitively

• Believes in building community through experimentation

Then you belong here.

🔗 Connect with David

You can learn more about David’s work and AI tooling experiments at MySalt.ai.

Stay tuned for our next post featuring Colin Harman, creator of Snowfort.ai, as we continue our VibeCoding Speaker Series.