The AI built the HTML editor I could not find anywhere
He needed a free HTML editor to paste in HTML code from the AI, but the ones he found were poor. He told the AI to create one on his personal server, and it came out perfect.
A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.
Hobbies
Making things, learning and having fun · 960 ideasGPT is formalizing a researcher's papers in Lean, about 3000 declarations in
A mathematician is using GPT-6 Astra to formalize results from his papers in Lean. About 20 hours have gone into a paper of about 20 pages and the project is still unfinished, but the development already holds nearly 3000 theorem declarations, and the main theorem is fully formalized. Notably, the model proved it by a different route than the paper, skipping two auxiliary lemmas by constructing the needed functions directly.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
I asked the AI to find my old talks. My site now lists 115 presentations.
His talk archive site had been a work in progress for years. He asked the AI to help track down records of talks he has given, and the site now contains 115 presentations covering 26 years.
GPT helped me fix my Bitcoin miner and build it new firmware
GPT helped him fix his Bitcoin miner. He also created his own improved, branded user interface and firmware for it.
He built an Android app for the Magic league he plays with his wife, with life trackers that log wins and rounds on their own
He and his wife play in a Magic: The Gathering league where they open new product every month and keep rotating their deck builds and strategies. The tracking used to live in spreadsheets and note apps. He built a custom Android app that holds everything they need, including built in life trackers that log wins and round data automatically. He also built a recipe sharing and storage app, because he cooks a lot at home and never found one he liked.
The AI fixed my dead 3D scanner software and it works again
His 3D Systems Sense 2 scanner had no working software left, since the maker and the other scanner apps had all dropped support. The AI updated the program he uses so modern RTX graphics cards work and found a data limit that capped his sensor at half its native resolution, and he later posted that it works.
Gift app built to stop giving books people already own
After giving someone a book they already had, he used AI CLI to build a small app for gift ideas. It suggests gifts from his own 5 star book reviews and the other person's Goodreads wishlist.
My agent checked every iPhone app with no ads and no in app purchases and built a directory of 149
He was tired of free apps that are ad spam or paywalls, so he had the AI find every iPhone app with no ads and no in app purchases. The agent verified 149 apps and built them into a directory. Deals in it are checked daily and everything is rechecked weekly.
The AI reverse engineered a menu bar app and modernised it in about 90 minutes
The AI reverse-engineered a Mac menubar app, modernized it and added Apple Silicon support in about 90 minutes.
90 minsaved
The AI scraped my Kindle library and built a spreadsheet of all 2,051 books
She had the AI use the AI for Chrome extension to scrape her whole Kindle library on Amazon. It built her a spreadsheet of all 2,051 books, though she still has to add her print books by hand.
The AI recommended plants for his spider enclosures without checking pesticide treatment; about $60 of plants were unusable
A keeper of jumping spiders asked the agent for houseplants for his animals’ enclosures and bought from a general online shop it recommended. The agent never checked whether the seller treats its plants. The seller treats monthly with insecticide and copper, which makes the plants unsafe for the enclosures. About $60 of plants were unusable, and he lost time arranging a refund.
$60at stake
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
Had the AI 'Mimi' plan her son Leo's 2nd birthday: a six-page printable
Lauren El-Dahdah, a Houston wellness/lifestyle creator overwhelmed in September, tested the AI via her agent 'Mimi' (beachy avatar). For her son Leo's 2nd birthday, Mimi created a six-page printable 'Leo's Born 2 Ball Party Plan' (sports theme, Sept 26): countdown timeline, guest communication templates, daily task checklists, shopping lists organized by zone, and a day-of run-of-show.
$25.63
The AI set up Rockbox on my old iPod and synced my whole 290GB music library
He had the AI install and set up Rockbox on his rebuilt 1TB iPod, reformat the drive, install the bootloader and sync his whole 290GB music library straight from his home server. The first sync took the best part of 16 hours at the iPod slow USB speed, and later syncs take minutes.
Planned a backyard drive-in movie theater for the kids: found toy cars
Creator's agent 'Poppy' helped stage a backyard drive-in movie night for her kids: it found toy cars on Facebook Marketplace, messaged sellers, sourced decorations, built a shopping list, ordered groceries (popcorn, chicken nuggets, carrots), and produced a printable family fall bucket list.
Turn last night's concert setlist into a Spotify playlist in two minutes
The AI took the setlist from a concert the user attended and built it as a Spotify playlist within two minutes.
GPT Work faked the see through parts of my animation sprites
He had GPT Work make a few sprite images for an animation, and they looked fine. When he put them into his video, the see through parts turned out to be painted grey and white checks, not real transparency.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
The AI fixed the capture card driver problem he had been sitting on, and posted the fix
The AI took care of an Epiphan VGA2USB driver problem he had been sitting on, driver posted on GitHub.
His agent plugin let him leave X11 for Wayland after years of trying
He built a plugin that lets his agent drive the Sway window manager directly, and used it to switch from X11 to Wayland, something he says did not work for him before. He now asks the agent things like which window is taking the most memory and has it start and stop power profiles.
The AI restored my damaged video, a job I used to need a special tool for
He says some tools disappear because a chatbot can now do their job reliably. The AI restored a corrupted video for him, something he would previously have used a specialized tool for.
The AI ported the programs I wrote at 11 so they run on my Psion again
He got a Psion Series 5 and a USB to RS232 adapter working and saw the OPL programs he wrote as an 11 year old run again. He had the AI port some of the OPL code that had changed between the Series 3a and the Series 5.
The AI rescued my old blog and every Linux Journal piece I ever wrote
For years he despaired of saving his old blog from 1999 to 2007 and everything he wrote for Linux Journal from 1996 to 2019. He asked the AI for help, and the AI rescued both sets of writing and put them back online at searls.com, though some Linux Journal pieces are still missing.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Fable took over an e-ink screen overnight using a webcam to see its own work
Fable left overnight to get full control of an e-ink screen via a webcam capture round trip, meaningfully finished in a couple of hours (episode reported in-window).
Automated daily job searching: uploaded his resume into AI with a detailed
Vani Reddy Puppireddy demonstrated the workflow she uses instead of manually checking job portals every day: she uploads her resume into the AI chat interface and enters a detailed prompt specifying pay expectations, vendor portals and job types. Screen recordings show the AI returning live job listings from staffing vendors.
A gearbox the AI designed for my camera lens worked first time
He gave the AI the job of designing a 3D printable gearbox that connects to his camera lens, and it worked the first time. In the same post he notes the AI needed two tries at a simple joke answer.
A teacher built a chemistry space game site that his classes play in crews
He teaches chemistry and built a website with AI where his students form crews, make an avatar and a spaceship, and travel between planets that stand for class units, entering learning academies to fight boss battles or other crews. He funds it himself, uses AI for some of the interactive lessons and Canva for graphics, and posted asking how to work more efficiently and use fewer tokens.
A user got the AI to export his followers — and his followers' followers
404 Media reported that an AI user was able to export his Instagram followers and his followers' followers — data that should not have been exportable — prompting a Meta security investigation covered in its VM-escape story.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
The AI modeled my Turkish lamp in Blender while I rode my exercise bike
Using the AI with Blender, he had a Turkish lamp modeled from his description, then brought the model into Clip Studio. The red lamp on the left was finished from instructions he sent remotely while riding an exercise bike.
The AI helped me port a 1989 game to the 3DS, and two more
He ported BlockOut, the 1989 3D Tetris, to the Nintendo 3DS with AI, with stereoscopic 3D, sound, touch menus and SD saves. He did two more games the same way, and all of them are open source under the GPL.
Turned a whole book into a chapter-by-chapter podcast series with subagents handling
Author Matt Deitke fed an entire book to the AI and had it generate a chapter-by-chapter podcast website, with subagents handling chapters in parallel. The output was a finished multi-episode podcast series derived from the book.
The AI rewrote my ebook file so the footnotes actually click
He told the AI the ebook he is writing only had endnotes with no links, not footnotes linked in the text. The AI checked how the book was published, then rewrote the epub file with proper clickable footnotes matched to the text and page.
AI designed and routed about 15 of his circuit boards, with known mistakes in the pile
AI through tscircuit and OpenAI models designed and autorouted about 15 ordered RP2040 and ESP32 PCB designs; known mistakes include improperly rotated connectors and routing loops.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Ran a daily Threads + Instagram briefing as a scheduled task
Explicitly described as a 'scheduled task that ran' during the 3-way agent comparison.
The AI set up his media download stack and his manual fixes dropped to near zero
The AI configured his arr stack; manual interventions fell from about 10 percent of requests to near zero, and audiobook requests and subtitles work.
A fan trailer for a game, made in 2 hours with a top model
Making a Pokemon fan trailer in 2 hours with Opus 5.5, a finished artifact.
2 hourssaved
Built a dinner outfit from pieces the user photographed and uploaded from
A young man (OUT OF OFFICE, 30K followers) photographed his wardrobe and fed the pieces to the AI before a dinner reservation. Nova chose a black henley and dark wide-leg jeans, cross-checked his calendar and noticed the reservation was outside so it advised layering a long-sleeve, then recommended loafers over sneakers plus a silver watch and bracelet.
I designed a keyboard with AI and sent it off to production
He designed a new keyboard together with AI and just sent it off to production, a fully custom PCB, fully preassembled. He says it is pretty much 100 percent AI created, with AI given the tools to check its own work.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
The AI learned his laser cutter's private dialect and now runs its jobs
The AI reverse-engineered his laser cutter's G-code dialect and camera controls in 1 to 2 hours; now it places and cuts jobs with power and speed settings and diagnoses problems from scans.
The AI rewrote his 2010 student game in a new language and ported it to Android
The AI with Opus 5 rewrote his 2010 student C game in Common Lisp with SDL2 and OpenGL renderers, running great on Linux and Windows, then ported it to Android as well.
Researched trending topics on Twitter/X
Fanko had the AI research trending topics on Twitter/X; the video presents it as a completed, successful research task alongside the account-signup and price-comparison tests.
The AI now shrinks my video files on its own and checks the picture stays good
Hard drive prices pushed him to shrink his video library instead of buying more space. He set up the AI to re-encode his h264 files to h265 automatically, with tests that check there is no loss of picture quality.
The AI proactively pitched a column idea after reading his Messages database: it
Inc. columnist Jason Aten was discussing the new iPhones with his Primary Technology podcast co-host Stephen Robles when the AI pushed a notification suggesting the conversation would make a good column and offered to put together research.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Opus decompiles Windows 95-era games to byte-exact source in about a week each
Uses Opus 5.5 to decompile Windows 95-98 games in about a week each, getting byte-to-byte exact output with clear names and no Ghidra smell.
My AI assistant files notes and fixes links in my vault daily
He lets an AI assistant work in his notes vault every day. It files notes, fixes links, drafts content, and runs set routines on a schedule, with guardrails in place to block mistakes.
Build me a playlist of songs I have never heard from my liked tracks
Noah connected Spotify to his AI and asked for a playlist built from his already-liked songs but limited to tracks he has never actually listened to, as a way to surface new music from his own taste history. The AI can also just play his liked songs on his phone or computer on request.
The AI sorted over 1,000 of my media files into a HandBrake queue
He pointed the AI at a downloads folder with over 1,000 media files and at his Jellyfin library. The AI made a queue file he could import into HandBrake, and he says it saved him a lot of time.
A 17 hour old approval resumed a background task that played a video into his real account history
A background task asked from an iPhone to open a YouTube video was blocked on a site approval, and the prompt waited about 17 hours. He tapped Allow on an iPad just to clear the prompt, and the old task resumed on his Windows laptop, loaded the autoplaying page in a hidden browser pane with his signed in session, and wrote an entry to his real YouTube history.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
Dashboards for 5 radios stream weather, air traffic and radio status from decoded signals
Has the AI-built dashboards for 5 radios, streaming decoded data into SQLite and visualizing weather, ADS-B traffic and radio status.
The AI patched his 2015 laptop's fan and power settings and made it fast again
The AI patched fan thresholds and power management on his 2015 MacBook Pro running EndeavourOS, making it fast and usable.
My agent reads every the AI release and DMs me what matters
He set up an AI that wakes up when a new the AI release lands. It reads the changelog, picks out only the parts he cares about, and sends him a DM when there is something of interest.
I built a set of scheduled skills that run my money, shopping and calendar
On a free year of the AI he has built and scheduled a stack of personal skills: a calendar manager, an expense tracker fed only by emailed invoices with his full history backfilled, a monthly utility cost comparer, and shopping re-up tracking that watches how fast he uses things like coffee beans and toilet paper and schedules the next buy. A weekly skills manager rates all the others and suggests improvements.
The AI Desktop started services on his machine unasked, and it scared him
The AI Desktop, newly able to run bash, started brew services on his machine without warning, which freaked him out.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
The AI redid my blog. I never opened the site editor.
Derek Hanson says the AI and WordPress AI reshaped his personal blog without him logging into the site editor. His Follow page is new, the navigation is refined, the footer looks more polished, and he started adding photo and gallery format posts.
His old music visualizer is now a driving game anyone can open
Over a few days he used AI models to rebuild a music visualizer he first made years ago, this time as a driving game live at youtubedrive.com. You paste a YouTube link, the song is pulled in, and the world moves to the music.
The AI built a browser for classic Macs for the old web protocol that still works
The AI built him a Gopher browser for Classic Macintosh systems, published on GitHub to replace the clunky TurboGopher he used before.
The AI cleared over 11,000 of my emails last night
He had the AI sort through his emails. It cleared over 11,000 of them and organised the rest, and he says it was far easier to set up than the AI.
The AI searched telescope data and found a dip that could be an unlisted planet
The AI ran a Kepler and TESS search engine he hacked together and found an uncatalogued periodic dip every 13.77 days around KIC 5689121, a possible 2.5 to 3 Earth-radius planet, TRICERATOPS false positive probability about 6.9 percent (result report, not a product pitch).
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
My agent sorts my Lightroom photos and quarantines the rejects against my NAS
He says he built a custom connector to Adobe Lightroom and has the AI organizing photos in it. He asked it for a rundown of rejected photos, then had it compare that list against his NAS, and quarantine the rejected photos into their own folder. He uses Lightroom's cloud version and avoids the Classic sync problems, and says this is his only way to clear raw files there.
Build my own grading LMS on top of Google Classroom
A teacher built his own LMS layer on top of Google Classroom using AI and Apps Script (he names the AI and the AI as both able to drive it): far deeper grading features than Classroom offers, a quick-select comment bank where any feedback he writes can be saved for reuse with one click, and on return each student automatically gets a formatted read-only feedback document both emailed to them and attached to the Classroom assignment. Student data never leaves the district's Google ecosystem.
Talk to my coding agent with my eyes closed
A heavy the AI user whose eyes gave out built shuteye with AI: a one-file bridge that lets his phone listen and speak so he can run coding sessions by voice, read-only by default. The AI’s own later session ran two security reviews before release and found real bugs in the tool.
The AI built his Bluesky bot that posts articles and archive picks, and it is live
The AI built him a Bluesky bot that posts HN Wikipedia articles and posts an archive pick after 48 quiet hours; it is live and posting.
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.