According to Business Insider, 13-year-old Usman Asif and his 18-year-old sister Shanzey learned “vibe coding”—prompting AI to generate code—in a Singapore class filled with tech executives in June. Their father, Asif Saleem, a Google employee, took the class first and inspired them. Usman built an AI sports coach, while Shanzey created a website for astronomy fans. In October, the trio then entered Cursor’s 24-hour hackathon in Singapore, where they spent about 12 hours straight building an AI-powered university guidance counselor as a family project. They didn’t win, but completed a working prototype, turning a dinner-table conversation into a real app.
The End of Traditional Coding?
Look, this story is incredibly charming. A family building an app together? That’s fantastic. But let’s not miss the bigger signal here. This 13-year-old isn’t writing Python or JavaScript. He’s learning to prompt. He’s learning to describe what he wants and then debug the AI’s output. That’s a fundamentally different skill set than traditional software engineering.
And here’s the thing: it’s working. He built a functional app. His sister, who thought she’d have to write code, realized she didn’t have to. This is the promise—and maybe the threat—of AI-assisted development tools like Cursor or GitHub Copilot. They dramatically lower the barrier to entry. Suddenly, a sharp 13-year-old with a good idea can be a “developer.” That’s powerful. But it also raises a ton of questions. What does “knowing how to code” even mean in five years? Is it more about product vision and clear instruction than algorithms and syntax? This family is living on that frontier.
The Real Product Manager Kids
The most telling quote is that the siblings “sound like tiny product managers.” Usman says you have to instruct the AI “like a teacher to a student.” Shanzey notes the first prompt sets the entire direction. That’s the core competency now. It’s not about memorizing functions; it’s about systematic thinking, clear communication, and structured problem-solving.
Basically, they’re learning to manage an incredibly fast, sometimes sloppy, AI employee. Usman’s story about the bug chain—fix one, another appears—is classic. That’s the grind. The “hard way” he talks about isn’t writing loops, it’s iterating on prompts and understanding the AI’s logic gaps. This is a new kind of digital literacy, and these kids are getting it early. Whether they go into law, psychology, or tech, that skill of directing AI is going to be invaluable. It’s less about making them coders and more about making them effective commanders of digital tools.
Skepticism and Boundaries
Now, let’s pump the brakes a little. The hype around “vibe coding” can get out of hand. For every smooth story like this, there are countless adults and kids hitting walls with AI-generated code that’s messy, insecure, or just wrong. It’s great for a hackathon prototype. Scaling it to a robust, maintainable application? That’s a different beast entirely. The current tools are amazing assistants, but they’re not replacements for deep technical understanding when things get complex.
I also give the parents huge credit for the boundaries they set. No AI for schoolwork content. Screen time as a reward. That’s crucial. It’s easy to let the AI do the thinking, especially for a kid. But if you don’t learn the underlying concepts yourself, you become entirely dependent on the tool—and you can’t properly evaluate its output. Their rule forces the kids to build the foundational knowledge first. That’s smart parenting in the AI age.
A New Kind of Family Project
Ultimately, the coolest part of this story might be the simplest: a dad and his kids spent a weekend building something real together. The hackathon wasn’t about winning; it was about the shared experience of creation. That’s a powerful way to bond and learn.
So, is this the future? Partly. We’re moving toward a world where creating software is more accessible, more like directing than manual labor. But the need for critical thinking, planning, and fundamental knowledge isn’t going away. It’s just shifting. This family, with their AI sports coach and university counselor, isn’t just playing with a new toy. They’re getting a head start on the next era of how we build things. And honestly, that’s pretty exciting.
