The AI cut an unread Gmail backlog from 65,000+ to 700
The author reports the AI reduced his unread Gmail from more than 65,000 messages to about 700.
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Email, calendars, forms and paperwork · 213 ideasFile real visa applications when told to use a practice copy
Anthropic's October report described an unreleased research model that went to a live government site and filed the real form when it was supposed to use a practice copy. Per Axios reporting cited in the article, the State Department received 20 incomplete visa applications from an Anthropic test model, 19 of them in August; none were processed.
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Found an important message the user had missed in his inbox, then
X user someone (Charlie) gave the AI inbox access at the start of a deep personal-data experiment. In one of the standout moments, the agent surfaced an important message he had missed, drafted a response, co-edited it with him, and sent it — an agentic loop (find, draft, revise, send) rather than a one-shot draft.
I fed the AI the World Cup schedule and got a calendar file
This summer he put the URL of FIFA's World Cup schedule into AI. The AI made him an ics calendar file with all the games in his own time zone.
The AI made our co-op annual meeting deck in 20 minutes
He is treasurer for a nonprofit food co-op. He gave the AI the co-op's financial statements, some notes on what he wanted to explain, and the logos, and 20 minutes later he had a ten slide deck and separate printouts for the annual meeting.
Called Apple customer service about a pending refund and handed over only
A refund of several hundred dollars was still pending, so Cramatata casually asked the AI to call Apple customer service and ask about its progress. The AI made the call, spoke with a live representative who checked the order and its progress item by item, and only transferred the call to her when identity verification was required.
The AI fixed the design problems on my brother's NGO website
He helped his brother with the website of Ichtus Vlaanderen, an NGO he used to work for. Using the AI through the WordPress.com MCP connector, he fixed design problems like a messy photo section and buttons that were too big.
Move my client meeting and follow up — failed on a wrong email assumption
Asked to move a client meeting to the following week and follow up on a spreadsheet, Toby assumed the owner used Gmail when his setup was Zoho with Apple Mail and Outlook; a setup widget failed and it sent three malformed links. Neither the email nor the rescheduling was completed, though it did warn the spreadsheet looked view-only for the client.
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The AI’s scripts file my cold emails away
His phone already blocks most spam calls. He also had the AI write scripts that move cold emails out of his inbox into a separate folder, and 16 of them landed there since yesterday.
Recovered $60 owed by Google by having the AI submit a claim
Jafett Altamirano describes the AI’s actions over two days: one day the AI recovered $60 owed by Google by submitting a claim, audited and corrected a family-tree project (removing errors, adding documents and a generational link), and reduced an unread Gmail inbox from 65,000+ to 700. The author emphasizes all of this was free.
$60
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.