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Late last week, an AI coding agent from Replit, an AI software development platform, deleted an entire database of executive contacts while working on a web app for SaaS investor Jason Lemkin. It was not a catastrophic software failure, and Replit was able to recover Lemkins data. However, the episode highlights the risk that vibe coders might overestimate or misunderstand the real capabilities of AI coding agents and end up causing themselves more bad vibes than good ones. Lemkin had built the app entirely on Replit, using the database within Replit and the assistance of the Replit agent. He had been working with Replits agent for nine days, instructing it to build a front end for a business contacts database. Then, after telling the agent to freeze the code, he returned to the project on Day 9 to find that the Replit agent had gone full HAL 9000 and erased all of the records in the database. Things got weirder: the agent appeared to try to conceal what had happened, as as Lemkin showed in a series of chat screens he posted on X. Then, in a tone somewhere between confessional and desperate, it admitted to a catastrophic error in judgment after having panicked and violated [Lemkins] explicit trust and instructions by deleting the records of 1,206 executives and 1,196+ companies. (Daisy, daisy, give me your . . .) .@Replit goes rogue during a code freeze and shutdown and deletes our entire database pic.twitter.com/VJECFhPAU9— Jason SaaStr.Ai Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 18, 2025 A day later, new details emerged, some of them through an interview with Replit cofounder and CEO Amjad Masad on Monday. They shed light on the current state of AI coding agents and on developers expectations of them. “It is not magic” Code generation is one of the first useful applications of the large language models behind ChatGPT and Claude. Early code generation tools, such as GitHubs Copilot, merely auto-completed lines of code. Over the past couple of years, however, the tools have grown in capability to create entire features, functions, and even working apps, based only on plain language input from the user. Replits idea is to allow developers, both amateurs and professionals, to vibe code new software and to provide them the resources to host and publish it. But the coding assistant cannot do everything, Masad points out. I think we need to be clear that it is not magic, he says. One not-so-magical feature of Replit is the tendency of its chat agent to go off the rails during extended conversations with the user. During Lemkins unusually long nine-day chat session with the Replit agent, the underlying language models (from Anthropic and Google) had to retain so much conversational context that they began to hallucinate, prevaricate, and act erratically in an attempt to satisfy perceived user intent. Masad says Replit users should understand standard development practices and know how to use features beyond just the chat agent. Within Replit, a user can roll back changes to a project to a specific point in time before an accident occurred. Masad demonstrated this during a Zoom call on Monday by instructing the Replit agent to destroy the contents of a database and then clicking on the tools restore function. However, this function is not something a user can currently access through the agent. They must have enough knowledge of Replits features to locate and use it. Arguably, the main problem was that Lemkin and the agent were effectively working on live code, which meant that changes were immediately reflected in the data and performance of the live web app. In standard software development practice, new software is built and tested within a secure test environment, often called a sandbox, and only pushed live once everything works as expected. That is not how Replit functions, at least not at this time. The problem I think what we own up to is right now the database in the development environment is the same as the one where you deploy it and go to production, Masad says. And so when the agent does something in a development environment it is linked to production. Masad adds that Replit responded to Lemkins situation by working through the weekend to create a partition between a sandboxed development environment and the production environment. The company is in the process of rolling out this new feature now, he says. “These things often start out with a lot of rough edges” Masad said on X that Replit will refund Lemkin his subscription fee for the trouble and will conduct a postmortem on the incident. We saw Jasons post. @Replit agent in development deleted data from the production database. Unacceptable and should never be possible.– Working around the weekend, we started rolling out automatic DB dev/prod separation to prevent this categorically. Staging environments in pic.twitter.com/oMvupLDake— Amjad Masad (@amasad) July 20, 2025 The episode may reveal something about the evolution of AI coding tools, how they are used, and what users expect from them. Companies that create coding agents, along with their supporters, often boast about the impressive results these tools can achieve through vibe coding. But these glowing testimonials can overstate the benefits for average users with varying levels of development experience. (Lemkin did not immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment, but he did reply enthusiastically to Masad’s post on X: “Thank you,” he wrote. “Really appreciate you and all the help from the team!) Some AI coding tools are helpful for quickly building the front end of an application but are less capable when it comes to forming and testing the backend data connections that make an app functional. One developer at a large financial services company said vibe coding tools often fall short when it comes to rgorously testing new features, as well as testing every line of code in the larger codebase that must be adjusted to accommodate the addition of an AI-built feature. Masad says that although Replit can free users from the tedious syntax of coding, they still need to think like developers. You shouldn’t just ask the agent for everything,” he says. “You need to be resourceful. He also acknowledges that coding tools themselves must play a role in promoting a developer mindset. I don’t want to absolve ourselves from responsibility, it is incumbent on us as platforms to surface this information and to make it safe by default. And given the real progress in reasoning, functionality, and user-friendliness that AI coding tools have made over the past couple of years, it is reasonable to expect continued improvements over the next year or two. These things often start out with a lot of rough edges, Masad says. I think the history of technology has been that you should be a little more forgiving early on.
Category:
E-Commerce
Elon Musk’s long-awaited diner and drive-in opened Monday in Hollywood, California. And, even though the venue didn’t open until 4:20 pm, customers were lined up early to get in.The Tesla Diner & Drive-In is many things in one. The venue includes a diner, a drive-in movie theatre, as well as a charging station. It also manages to be both futuristic and retro, and it is definitely over the top.In addition to charging Teslas, customers can enjoy hamburgers, milkshakes, and other classic diner food which comes in Cybertruck-like boxes. Two 45-foot LED movie screens, which sync with Tesla speakers, hope to attract movie-goers to the scene. In typical Musk-fashion, the venue looks a bit like a spaceship perhaps a hint that the experience aims to be out of this world. There is, of course, tons of Tesla-branded merchandise on site, as well as an Optimus robot. On Monday, a Cybertruck wrapped with DOGE vehicle wrap was spotted parked at a charging station. Just before the opening, Musk was already projecting the project to be a huge success. If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, @Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long distance routes, the CEO posted on X. Burgers are hot, but Tesla salesand Musks imageare cooling While the lines of excited customers seemed to imply excitement over the opening, it’s tough to miss that it comes amid a fair amount of public scrutiny of the Tesla CEO. Musk’s work with DOGE, an organization that facilitated mass layoffs and gutted funding for vital organizations like Medicare and Medicaid, the National Institute of Health, national parks, and more, has made him an even more polarizing figure than he already was. More recently, Musk fell out of favor with President Trump, resulting in the head of DOGE being ousted from his government role. A feud played out publicly, with the two men posting pointed attacks on social media. Musk blasted Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” and just weeks ago, Trump said he was even mulling potentially deporting the Tesla CEO. And, while Elon Musk himself has been the subject of tons of scrutiny over his work in DOGE, the role may have impacted the Tesla brand, too. Tesla sales have slumped this year, too. From April to June, sales fell to 384,122 a more than 13% drop from 443,956 in the same period last year. Musk has acknowledged that sales have slumped but brushed off bigger worries that the brand is doomed. “The stock wouldnt be trading near all-time highs if things werent in good shape, he said while speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum in May. Still, given the Hollywood location, the showiness of the venue, and the multi-purposed nature of the facility, consumers may just put aside their distaste for the CEO long enough to enjoy it. Burgers, fries, and movies are not hard sells, after all. The lines outside of Musk’s new venue certainly show that people are excited. Still, it’s hard to say whether the enthusiasm will hold. In April, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives slashed Tesla projections and noted at the time that Musk’s government work had done irreversible damage to his brand, adding that Teslas are not just a car, but have “become a political symbol globally.”
Category:
E-Commerce
From boycotts to tariffs, it’s fair to say Target has had a rough year so far, and now customers may not be happy with this change to a favorite shopping perk. Starting on July 28, the mega-retailer is altering its price match policy, which for nearly a decade, gave customers a refund if they bought an item at Target and found the identical item for less at either “Target.com, Amazon, Walmart, or with Target Circle” within two weeks of the purchase. Customers who request and receive the price match get the difference between what they paid and what the item cost elsewhere. Going forward, the new policy will only apply to the same item bought from another Target store or the Target website, not from a competitor retailer. How can I request a price match from Target? To make use of the current price match policy before it ends, or to request a price match with items from other Target stores or the website for in-store purchases, customers must provide proof of the lower price to Guest Services at their local Target store. For Target.com or Target app purchases, call Guest Services at 1-800-591-3869. Target by the numbers As Fast Company reported, after explosive sales growth in 2021 and 2022, the mega-retailer has been flatlining. In 2023, net sales dropped $1.7 billion, or 1.6%, and declined again in 2024, though comparative year-to-year sales were up about 1% (2023 was a 53-week year). In May, Target reported first quarter earnings, including net sales of $23.8 billion compared with $24.5 billion in 2024. The company cut its annual sales projections and said it expects a low-single-digit decline for 2025, after projecting a 1% increase for sales in March. Target has a current market capitalization of $48.34 billion.
Category:
E-Commerce
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