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.

Run my cross-disciplinary research program: find and solve 'the AI-shaped' problems

Harvard physicist Matthew Schwartz built BootLoops, an open-source harness that points the AI at exact, checkable calculations, and ran it for three months across roughly 400 candidate problems: the result was 36 manuscripts in 18 fields with 19 coauthors, including 15 Feynman integrals never computed before, Watson's 1939 'final problem' solved, and a forest model showing Panama's Barro Colorado species mix changes 4.5 times faster than neutral theory allows. The AI reproduced results from his own paper in about 20 minutes that had taken him weeks to code.

Had her agent 'Paris' shop patio furniture under $1,200 and a gown

Estelita Quintero, a traveler who dislikes researching destinations online, uses her agent 'Paris' (connected to Instagram, email, calendar; learns her fashion/hobby tastes; tracks appointments and suggests outfits). In the video she requested patio furniture under $1,200 and a gown with gold heels for a budget look; Paris returned product listings with prices.

$1,200

The AI proactively caught a travel-date mismatch: questioned whether his Singapore-to-Toronto flight was

Leo Batistella (Portuguese-language creator) showed a chat where his AI listed his itinerary — Oct 9 Bali to Shanghai, Oct 10 Shanghai to Singapore (early morning), Oct 11 connecting in Singapore to Toronto without leaving the airport — then questioned whether the Singapore-Toronto leg was Oct 11 or Nov 11, noting his Toronto hotel is booked Nov 11-15. Without being asked, the agent checked his ticket and confirmed the flight is in October, not November.

Set up a new AI model on my two home servers while I stay in bed

A home-lab owner reported on X (via WhatAgentsCanDo, Oct 19) that, still in bed, he sent the AI a link to a post containing a setup recipe for a new DeepSeek model (DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017, EXL3) across two NVIDIA DGX Spark machines and asked it to do the setup. The AI was not installed on the Sparks, but they shared a network with its computer, and everything was ready to test by the time he got up; he says he does not know exactly how the bot reached the machines.

Source and order the parts for my DIY bag charm

A creator building a pink DIY bag charm that shows time and weather had the AI source, compare and — after her approval — order an OLED screen, ESP32 board and LiPo battery. The finished charm is shown working on her handbag.

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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.