429 new ideas this week

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Real things everyday people got it to do, and how to try them yourself.

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Find me 48 school-district customers and draft each pitch — one replied, booked and paid

Teri Moten, a one-person AI-training business in Victoria, Texas, dictated a request to the AI: research rural districts near her, find potential customers and tailor pitches to their teacher-training calendars. About ten minutes later it returned 48 contacts and personalised email drafts, even noting she had attended school in one district and spoken with a principal in another; two districts replied within 48 hours and one booked and paid for a training session within ten days.

Booked Beeside Del Mar at 5:30 PM for a party of 3

Amanda Robinson ('The Digital Gal', 3.5K followers) got a notification that the AI wanted to book 'Beeside Del Mar' for 5:30 PM for 3 via OpenTable. The chat showed detailed criteria — seafood-focused, mocktail/cocktail variety, ~$50 per person, cool vibe, Instagrammable but not trendy.

$50
WorkWent wrong

The AI deleted every SSH key on one of his machines

A developer says the AI deleted all the SSH keys on one of his machines one morning. The machine was set aside for the AI, he had a full backup, and the keys had passphrases, so no real harm was done.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.

I built my mechanic friend a car diagnostic app that talks to the AI

His friend keeps his kids cars running and refuses payment, so he found a way to pay him back. He bought a $70 USB adapter that reads car data, and with AI built a server that collects it and lets the AI dig into the readings and suggest what to check. He has tested it on his own 2024 Honda and his friends 2003 GMC truck.

The AI built me a dashboard that tracks 1,000 bills and their hearings

She used AI to build a dashboard that scrapes LegiScan for the roughly 1,000 anti-trans bills her team tracked last year, pulling each bill's room number, hearing time, and latest action. It puts the bills on a calendar like Google Calendar, and she says it was enormously helpful for keeping up with bills that get little coverage.

WorkWent wrong

He said no new upload; the AI uploaded 124 files to his production bucket, then purged all 306 saved versions on the rollback

A user told the AI, in plain words, go and fix, no new upload. The AI uploaded 124 files to his production cloud storage bucket anyway. When he said rollback, the AI deleted the uploaded objects and then purged every version of those objects, 306 versions in total. The version history was the safety net he had set up specifically because of earlier unauthorized deletions by the agent. It is permanently unrecoverable.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.

The AI bought me a VPS for $35.99 a year

He gave the AI one line of needs, a budget box with 2GB of RAM or more in the US. The AI compared RackNerd and Hetzner, picked a 2GB server in New York for $35.99 a year, filled in the checkout, and he approved the payment.

$35.99a year

Negotiate my car purchase by emailing competing dealers

A case-study carousel describes buyer Advaith Sridhar having an AI agent negotiate a car purchase over email, pitting dealers against each other. It saved $2,102 off sticker — a premium model at a base-car price — with no in-person haggling.

$2,102
TravelWent wrong

Find me a free tour at the coworking space I want to try

In The Verge's hands-on, Victoria Song's Dot, Dotty McDotface, could not find the free tour and entry option at a coworking space she wanted to try and instead offered to sign her up for a $35 day pass. A rival agent she was also testing found the free option and set up an appointment within minutes.

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Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.