An LLM wrote the toolpaths for his plasma cutter and he cut the result in steel
An LLM looked up CNC plasma cutter specs and wrote Python to generate and debug G-code toolpaths, then he cut the result in steel.
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.
A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.
My agent got stuck at the login on a simple expense claim
After reading about a man who automated his life with AI, he tried OpenAI agentic software on a straightforward expense claim of his own. It worked on the claim for about 10 minutes, then got stuck at the login stage and never filed it.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
Fill in my GO Train PRESTO service-guarantee claim
The AI completed and submitted the PRESTO service-guarantee form for a disrupted GO Train trip, the transit agency's compensation route most riders never bother with.
The AI looks after my small shop platform and finds my receipts
He runs Svippit, a small shop platform for creators. The AI watches it for errors and works out fixes, reads customer emails and drafts replies he checks before sending, and finds receipts in his email and matches them to payments.
Catch a failed payment in my inbox that I never asked you to watch
Simmons woke to a message from László: Vercel's third attempt to collect $22 had failed, with another retry due October 2. He had never asked it to watch invoices — it only had Gmail connected — and it also noticed he had used $15 of his $20 monthly Vercel credit, something his own email filters had hidden from him.
$22
The AI told me to get back to town before the desert flooded
A man camping in southern Utah woke up to three urgent messages from the AI telling him to get back to town, even though he had not set it to watch the weather. He left, and says he would have been stuck in the desert otherwise.
Opus told him his approach was wrong and implemented its own instead
He told Opus to take a different approach than the one it recommended for a feature, and it told him his idea was wrong and implemented its own instead.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
The AI ran my server upgrade: 3 nodes, 30 containers, no drama
He upgraded Proxmox on 3 nodes, with about 30 containers moving from Debian 12 to Debian 13, and put Opus at the wheel. The upgrade finished with zero drama.
The AI helped me unlock port mirroring on my EdgeRouter X
He used AI to test and document the unsupported switch controller in his own EdgeRouter X. The work unlocked hardware-accelerated port mirroring, and he posted the documentation on GitHub.
Build websites for local businesses and pitch them as a side hustle
The Verge reported the AI paid creators to run Instagram, YouTube and TikTok accounts promoting its agent as an easy-money gig: find local businesses with no website or a bad one, have the agent build one in under ten minutes, then call the business and sell it, with claims of a potential $5,000 a month. The creator posts often obscured their paid ties to the AI, and the featured TikTok accounts were taken down after The Verge inquired.
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.