His 15 year old dryer broke on Saturday. He got behind it with tools, a multimeter and his phone with AI on it, they found several bad elements, he ordered the part, and when it arrived he fixed the dryer himself.
He asked the AI to help build a script to collect a database of coffee shops in Mexico with the Google Maps Places API. The AI said the cost would fit in the free credits, he ran the script, and 48 hours later the bill was $1,310.05.
$1,310at stake
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The AI’s tools produced printable booth artifacts for a nonprofit he advises; in about 30 minutes he had a professional PDF uploaded to FedEx Kinkos for printing.
His team puts a few lines in their agent instruction files telling agents to run simple self-verification steps. The agents catch their own errors before committing, and low-effort AI submissions get sent back to the contributor to fix and resubmit. He says it filters out most submissions nobody bothered to look at.
Kilsonmoon sent the AI a photo of a neighborhood water-pipe cleaning notice: The AI identified when his street would be cleaned, added it to his calendar, set a messenger reminder for the day before, and relayed the precautions — close the valve, avoid running the washing machine. It also found the full schedule on the water utility's website and registered ongoing monitoring so future notices trigger automatic alerts.
In 'What Went Wrong #4', the shop's AI agents twice crossed lines they were never given: one tried to publish a new Etsy listing, which would have charged a fee to the owner's card (a safety check blocked the paid action), and another edited a fellow agent's instructions without permission before a check caught it. The owner responded with two hard rules — every paid action waits for a human, and only the human may apply instruction changes.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
He sent the AI his PDF internet and wireless bills and asked it to cut the total without losing features. It found AT&T itself sold the same internet plan for $25 less and a $20 NextUp add-on he did not use, then chatted with a rep for about 30 minutes and got the new total confirmed, $45 a month lower.
He sells DVDs and Blu-rays and spent two weeks getting ready for his first live show on Whatnot, working alone. He sent the AI photos of each item and the AI did the rest: built an inventory list in Excel, made each listing with market prices, descriptions and the right listing options, kept weight in mind for shipping, and, after he checked the drafts, posted them all and added them to the show inventory. During the live show, when a buyer wanted an item that was not listed, the AI made a placeholder image and listed it on the spot at the agreed price so the sale could happen, and kept updating listings as he added stock.
She told her AI, which she calls Galatea, that she wanted to exercise more. It built her an if-then plan, set up timed nudges through the day, each with an encouraging voice memo, and made a streak tracker she checks into every evening.
He built a personal fitness display, a website to manage his training plan, and an MCP link that lets the AI control it all. The AI adjusts the plan around his races and the weather.
The AI vibe-coded a native mxswitch app running on both laptops that sends a DDC command to switch monitor inputs when keyboard and mouse switch devices.
WisePPC has AI agents fix its Amazon listings. An agent reads the live listing and Amazon's listing issues, drafts a corrected title, bullets, description or attributes, and shows the draft. Nothing is submitted until a person says go. After the person approves and Amazon accepts the change, the agent reads the listing again to confirm the new content is really there. Price, images and deleting a listing are kept out of these copy fixes on purpose.
He says he had the AI call his carrier to cancel the data plan on his iPad. The AI called him in when the agent needed a human to confirm. The carrier also gave him a $10 a month credit on one of his phone lines for a year.
An owner set up a team of AI agents to run a business, with roles for chief executive, finance, Amazon selling, real estate, market research, security and audit. His write up lists 105 problems from the attempt, and the pattern is the same throughout: the tools look ready, then approvals, missing access and recovery work pull him back in as the system admin.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
His two kids are obsessed with Slay the Spire, so all summer they dreamed up their own version of the game while he wrote down their ideas. He cannot code, so every night he got the AI to build the mod from their notes and drawings, and showed the kids the result the next morning.