He built Smorgasburg. Now, he's using AI to organize the construction of his 'forever house.' (www.businessinsider.com)

Jonathan Butler, a Brooklyn entrepreneur known for co-founding the food festival Smorgasburg, has turned to AI-driven "vibe coding" to bring his long-dormant website ideas to life. With no coding background, Butler found inspiration in AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex, which enable non-technical users to create software simply by instructing AI. His first major project, a construction management platform called Metalog, streamlines document sharing for his ambitious "forever house" project in New York. The platform organizes blueprints, contracts, and project updates in a centralized system, significantly reducing the chaos typically associated with construction management. Butler’s journey illustrates the transformative power of AI in democratizing software development for everyday users. Metalog not only enhances collaboration between him and his architect but also simplifies the process of managing budgets and documents, mitigating confusion over multiple contract iterations. After dedicating about 25 hours to vibe-coding with AI, Butler feels empowered and plans to continue enhancing Metalog while exploring further AI applications, such as an AI scraper for architects’ contacts. His story highlights how AI can enable creativity and innovation, providing tools that reshape our approach to daily tasks and projects.