[Unhyped AI Seminars] AI & Coding Edition

If you're new to our series, the Unhyped AI Seminars is a sociotechnical & responsible AI seminar series to improve understanding of AI and its effects on society.

The series is partially supported by the PHAWM research project, funded by Responsible AI UK, and is hosted in partnership with the StirAI multidisciplinary research lab at the University of Stirling.

For details of past editions or to keep up-to-date with our agenda, check out the Unhyped AI Seminars webpage.

The AI & Coding Edition

The first 2026 edition will be a meet-up featuring AI & Coding, and you're welcome to join us in-person (limited seats available) or online (registration still required).

Vibe Coding in Higher Education: Experiences, Scenarios, and Sociotechnical Considerations

Code generation is one of the major applications of Large Language Models (LLMs), the most recent AI breakthrough that has drawn significant attention from society. Automating and popularizing coding has long been an aim of computer science, so now software companies and communities have coined the term “vibe coding” to promote LLM-based code generation. Indeed, vibe coding became the Collins Dictionary word of the 2025 year, which evidences the hype around this approach. However, LLMs raise a number of concerns regarding their training, the aggressive behavior of their provider companies, and the sociotechnical effects they produce. In this meet-up, we will discuss vibe coding scenarios and experiences in higher education and whether it could be a means for democratising access to coding. Importantly, we will also discuss the sociotechnical risks that should be considered in these scenarios, as well as eventual mitigation procedures that could be employed to address potential harms.

Panelists: Michaela Hruskova, Vassilis Galanos, Simon Powers & Conor McKeown @ University of Stirling

Michaela Hruskova, Vassilis Galanos, Simon Powers, and Conor McKeown are Lecturers at the University of Stirling. Michaela is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Vassilis is a Lecturer in Digital Work, both at the Stirling Business School. In turn, Simon is a Lecturer in Trustworthy Computer Systems at the School of Computing Science & Mathematics, while Conor is a Lecturer in Digital Media at the School of Communications, Media and Culture. Along with multiple other academics at Stirling, they comprise the StirAI multidisciplinary research lab (formerly JustAI Lab).