NYT reporter Eli Tan, reviewing the AI over two weeks with connected bank accounts and email, had it call his dental insurer Anthem. The AI supplied his member ID, answered the security question, waited on hold, then rang him through to the live representative.
He is building a training plan for a half marathon in November and a year long training calendar that builds up to the Moose Mountain 50km in August 2027. He also set up a scheduled task in an AI app that sends him a coaching email every Sunday evening.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
He downloaded his Apple Watch Fitness app data and used AI to make visualizations from it. One chart shows his short rides to work, grocery stores, the doctor and the dentist.
A Stanford doctor gave the AI his own genome file and a 180 word prompt based on the framework his team published in 2009. In about 30 minutes for about $5, the AI matched the main findings of that team’s work, flagged genes that affect how he responds to some medicines, and warned that his file did not have enough data for disease risk scores.
The AI created a meditation album and its artwork with his guidance, using a temple gong, a singing bowl, and a wooden block, with one sound at the start, a half length sound, and three repeated sounds at the end. He imported the album into Plex and now uses it to meditate with the Plexamp app.
A solo builder started runclub.events in May 2026 with an idea and no code, opening the AI for the first time. Sixteen weeks later the app is in production with 990 commits, more than 53,000 lines of code, and 160 features live, helping run club members connect on upcoming races.
A runner replaced uploading Garmin screenshots into AI with a self-hosted agent on a Mac mini that reads his Garmin data (sleep, HRV, resting heart rate, VO2 trend, laps) through MCP plus his Strava uploads: it messages him at 8am, designs the day's run and writes it to Garmin Connect, then grades each session against the prescription when it lands on Strava and decides when training load goes up. He hit his sub-20-minute 5K goal about a month later, and it saves him the hour a week he used to spend planning.
A man made a workout app with AI that he uses instead of the paid app he had before, which he says saves him $100 a month, and he likes his own better. One sound bug in it is still unsolved despite his and the AI’s efforts.
$100a month
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Angel Almenarez Jr. posted screenshots of an AI-generated workout tracking page built by the AI: 'DAY 1 UPPER PUSH' with exercises (Chest Press 4x8-10 Machine 120 LB, Incline Press 3x10-12 Dumbbell) plus an ACTIVE TRAINING BLOCK (Week 1, Week of Sep 21, BUILD phase) with a 4-day split (Upper Push, Lower Quads, Upper Pull, Posterior Chain) for logging weights and charting progress.
Booking swimming lessons for his son sat on a man's task list, pulled from his email by the AI. The AI watched lesson availability on its own and booked a suitable lesson as soon as one became available.