429 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.

Comb DNA databases with 950 agents and spot a new enzyme system

Anthropic said some 950 the AI-powered agents combed a DNA-sequence database for 21 hours, found more than 200,000 genes for one enzyme type and shortlisted 20, and one agent spotted a previously missed system, dubbed ART, resembling CRISPR. Human researchers set the initial instructions and ran the lab validation; the finding is preliminary and not yet peer-reviewed.

The AI helped run the search that split a set into 86 zero sum parts

A researcher studying rare zero sum congruences wanted to split a 629 number interval into as many disjoint zero sum subsets as possible. He used AI to help with the implementation and the computational search, including randomised searches for the larger subsets, and found a partition into 86 zero sum subsets covering the whole interval. Whether 86 is the maximum is still open.

Run a household money sweep: exemption, insurance, power, claims

One user listed what his AI did over a few weeks: filed his homestead exemption back to 2024 (about a $4,000 refund on the way plus roughly $2,000 a year), switched his car insurance to Progressive (about $1,500 a year), moved him to a cheaper power plan (about $800 a year), filed 20+ class-action claims for him and his wife (about $500 expected) and applied to 15+ jobs that led to interviews. He put the total at about $9,000, with forms prepared for his approval.

$9,000one time
WorkWent wrong

I asked Telus AI to fix my cable. It tried to sell me a $90 a month contract.

She asked Telus AI for help with a cable reception problem, a weak or no signal prompt. Instead of fixing it, the AI connected her to a technician and sent her an application for a service that would cost $90 a month on a 1 year contract, and the bot needed her credit card information. She said no.

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

Draw my 17-page solar permit set in under five minutes

An engineer gave the AI his house drawings, the original solar plans and a Powerwall expansion permit (mostly PDFs plus DXF files) after a contractor was slow to quote, and the bot produced a complete 17-page B-size permit drawing package in under five minutes, including a roof layout and one-line wiring diagrams drawn from scratch. He checked every line himself and planned to submit once a licensed engineer stamped the structural parts.

The AI made my adapter bracket in one shot

He gave the AI a CAD file he could not even open, plus a few measurements he took with digital calipers. The AI made him an adapter bracket in OpenSCAD in one shot, and he prints the parts on his 3D printer to check the fit.

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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.