Vibe coding platform Base44 has reportedly built its own AI model

Vibe coding platform Base44 has reportedly built its own AI model to avoid producing the same generic “AI-slop” website designs we’re starting to see everywhere.

Business Insider pitted it against Anthropic. Here's what they found.

Business Insider tested Base44’s new Base 1 model against Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 by asking both to build the same fictional eCommerce website, without giving them any visual design direction. The product was an “emotional support lamp” that reads Google Calendar events and changes colour depending on what is happening

Base 1 generated the site faster and used slightly fewer credits on a follow-up change, while Opus 4.8 produced something the writer felt looked a little more generic. But the difference was not dramatic, and both outputs still showed signs of “vibe-coded” AI design.

Paul Bakaus, the CEO of AI design startup Impeccable, was right when he said that the designs of these sites look like an "algorithmic Uniqlo or Ikea" - functional but basic. AI can build a landing page now. But it still struggles to make one that doesn’t look like everyone else’s.

I see this becoming a bigger product design problem, not just a visual one. AI can generate interfaces quickly, but speed alone does not create hierarchy, taste, product clarity, or a design that actually feels right for the people using it.

The interesting part is that “AI-generated sameness” is now visible enough that AI tools are starting to position themselves against it. Base44 is essentially trying to solve a problem created by general-purpose AI with a more specialised AI model.

The more AI tools accelerate production, the more important human design judgment becomes.