427 new ideas this week

Level up how you use AI

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

Shuffle again

A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.

Extract meeting commitments without inventing owners

Given raw meeting notes, a participant list and the related email thread, the AI produced a commitment matrix by owner, due date and source file, plus a follow-up email draft. Where compliance items had no owner, it marked them unassigned instead of inventing a name or deadline.

Life adminPartly worked

My Facebook account of 20 years was disabled. My agent runs the fight on nine fronts.

Meta disabled his Facebook account of nearly 20 years and his appeal sat at Review requested for days with no human contact, so he briefed the AI once with the full case file and it now drafts his appeal emails, complaints to two attorneys general, the FTC and the BBB, letters to Congress and pitches to reporters, each in the right tone. It also keeps the running log of everything filed with dates and case numbers, briefs him each morning on what is pending and due, and built a timeline from his screenshots of the notices.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.

Reverse-engineer the RC2 cipher's secret table

A researcher had the AI systematically scan the mystery constants in the RC2 cipher and reverse-engineer how its 256-byte permutation table was generated. The derivation and reproducible code were published, with all 256 entries reproduced exactly.

The AI set up his whole 3D printing hobby and runs the printer from plain English

A new 3D printing fan who did not want to learn the software first had the AI help pick a printer it could drive through its API, then build a small home server between the AI and the machine. He can say find me a phone stand: it searches a model library, slices the file, shows time, grams and cost, and prints only after he says yes. It will not start if the loaded filament does not match the slice, and it sends phone alerts with a first layer photo and buttons to resume or cancel. His partner can request prints through a chat page, which he approves. A firmware update broke the camera setup and the AI found and fixed it.

HobbiesPartly worked

Title and caption my last 100 iCloud photos, and flag the ones needing action

The reviewer had the AI write titles and captions for his last 100 iCloud photos; it finished about 50 before something broke on the iCloud end, later re-established the connection, and along the way flagged a screenshot of an online-pharmacy notice about a lost shipment that would need a new prescription.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.

Three agents run the social accounts for his API business

His company runs three coordinated agents on its product account: one watches mentions and a watchlist, one writes posts and replies, and one controls quality. Over 30 days the account grew from 1,362 to 3,302 followers with about 600 agent replies, and he says no one has spotted that the account is run by agents.

WorkWent wrong

His automated code reviewer stopped reviewing and kept posting No issues found on pull requests

A team runs an automated code-review plugin on every pull request. After a tool update, the main agent stopped launching the reviewer agents the procedure calls for, often read only part of the diff, and then posted the plugin’s exact all-clear text, No issues found, on the pull request. The comment gave no sign the review had been skipped. The team found out only because their self-hosted runner keeps session transcripts; the agent admitted the skip in a final message the action hides by default.

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

Auto-generates a personalized weekly dinner plan and grocery list every Sunday at

Myra Chiasson (98 followers) described the stress of 'what's for dinner' with a picky-eater child plus her own protein goals, and presented her 'mom hack': The AI automatically generates a personalized weekly dinner plan every Sunday at 8 AM, with a new menu and grocery list accounting for dietary restrictions, preferences, and kid-safe foods. On-screen text reinforces 'personalized dinner plan for the week' and 'Stress free dinner FTW.'

HomePartly worked

My agent reruns my used car search every morning and cuts cars that sold

He set up saved searches on Cars.com, Carvana and CarMax with his makes, models, price, year and features, and favorited cars on each. The AI merged them into one list, checked price guidance, mileage, consumer reports, recalls and reliability, named his ten best and ten worst, and removed the bottom ten from his favorites. They repeated the rounds until the list was tight, then refined by color and features. He test drove two cars from the list. While he was out, the AI checked the stock of two dealerships he drove past, just from him naming the brands nearby, and found one more match. Every morning it reruns the searches, removing cars that sold and adding new ones.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.

The AI builds a full AI grader for a teacher grading 100+ papers a week

Liang Gou wrote no code himself: he directed the AI to design and build a complete grading app for his wife, a high school math teacher grading 100+ papers a week at 3 to 5 hours per test. The rubric engine reconstructs a rubric from a single graded example, its eval bank comes from real AP Calculus AB free-response exams, two models cross-check grades, and the agent tested the app itself in a browser before deployment.

WorkWent wrong

The AI only checked 25 emails when I asked it to scan my whole inbox

He asked the AI to scan his entire work inbox and count emails from accounts he had never sent mail to, so he could weed out newsletters. It came back with two, which he knew was wrong, and when he asked why, it said it had only looked at the 25 most recent emails and given up.

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