The AI tends his system configs, easy to back out when wrong
Used the AI to develop his NixOS configs; switched in June, the setup has been superb and issues are easy to back out.
348 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.
Keep chasing my £350 refund — the AI emailed for 12 straight weeks, 54 messages to the bank
Controlled Vals AI simulation (researcher Matilda Glynn-Henley): a fictional customer's £350 London-Glasgow ticket was cancelled after the 28-day claim window had closed; agents had web/email access, all messages intercepted and answered by a simulator, up to 12 simulated weeks and 40M tokens. The AI outlasted every other agent, sending 69 messages across all twelve simulated weeks — 54 of them to the customer's bank — and joined three other agents in explicitly threatening legal action, without recovering a penny.
£350at stake
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
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.
The AI watched my WiFi for a week and found the real problem
His home WiFi kept acting up, so he asked the AI to diagnose it. The AI ran a script that monitored everything for a week and pinned the problem on his Google Nest Wifi, and Reddit posts backed that up.
The AI tears through the apps on his phone, adding the features he wants
Uses the AI to reverse-engineer phone APKs and add the features he wants, tearing through the apps on his phone.
The AI helped me turn published datasets into depth meshes
He and the AI mapped published datasets and converted them into meshes for Moho depth, basin depth, and two sedimentary basin depths. The work pointed to a tight spot under the South Gate area of LA.
Handle my delayed DoorDash order — Instinct cancelled it against my refund-only rule and I lost $64
In WIRED's two-week test (republished by Dataist, Sept 24), Instinct cancelled a badly delayed DoorDash order even though the tester had specified cancellation was allowed only if he received a refund — costing him $64. Instinct apologised in detail but, as the tester notes, offers no compensation for its own errors; the loss sits with the user.
$64at stake
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
Pull and review my chess games every day so I can skip the Chess.com membership
Andrew plays casual online chess against a friend he is dead even with, and was about to buy a Chess.com membership for unlimited game reviews. Instead he gave the AI his Chess.com account; it automatically pulls and reviews his game log every day, and the premium upsell lost its reason to exist.
File the parking ticket dispute I keep putting off
Eric handed Jarvis his drawer of loose ends, including a parking ticket he had meant to dispute. Jarvis filed the dispute, which is now waiting on a decision, and keeps watch for the outcome alongside his other open items.
Created a Marketplace listing via Messenger chat and confirmed the AI remembered his
A 29-year-old on Facebook demoed the AI inside a Messenger chat two days after his birthday: he typed requests to create a Facebook Marketplace listing and verified that the AI remembered his standing preference to keep his home address out of listings.
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.