An LLM made his TV switch inputs by itself when his computer plugs in
LLM helped develop in about 10 minutes a tray app that watches for a USB device and switches the TV input via the LG API; he no longer touches the remote.
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Your place, your car and your pets · 265 ideasAsked the AI to enable the business phone-calling feature; it admitted it can't
The author's the AI screenshot shows the agent admitting 'there's no switch on my end — I can't enable it myself' and offering that it drafted an unsent request: 'wants the business phone-calling feature enabled on their account so the AI can call US companies on their behalf.'
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
A Lego mailbox flag tells me when the AI finishes a task
He built a Lego mailbox with a small motorised flag. The AI hooks raise the flag when the AI finishes a task or needs him, and lower it when he writes a new prompt or leaves.
He rebuilt his parents’ blind controls so the house opens and closes itself with the sun
His parents’ ten blinds ran off one dumb radio remote. With a Flipper Zero he recorded the signals, the AI spec’d an ESP32 board to send them, wrote and flashed the software, and designed a printed case; the blinds now open and close at sunrise and sunset with a small web page for overrides. Later the AI built a phone app so his parents can just ask Siri to open or close them.
It found why my baby's pediatrician appointment was invisible and fixed the calendar sync
A new dad, baby born the week before, found his phone was syncing the wrong Family calendar, so the pediatrician appointment did not show on his side. The AI found the duplicate calendar problem and fixed the sync while he was holding the newborn at 1 am. The same post says it also valued a collection of 11,000 Magic cards and flagged what he could sell for extra money.
Identify my discontinued drill battery from a photo and find one on eBay
From a photo, the AI identified the user's discontinued drill battery and found an aftermarket replacement on eBay.
The AI designed his fan controller circuit, board, and software. The boards are ordered and still untested.
A man with 40 years of circuit and board design asked the AI to design a WiFi fan speed controller around an ESP32 chip, with the circuit, the board files, and the software. The first design took about 15 or 20 minutes. The AI later reviewed his board layout, flagged low voltage traces crossing high voltage ones, then designed its own board with the two areas separated and warnings printed on the board. He bought the parts himself. The boards are on their way and have not been powered up yet.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
The AI identified a clock's odd battery from a photo and ordered it
He sent the AI a photo of a clock, it worked out what non-standard battery it took and ordered it from Amazon for him.
I had the AI turn my ISP box into an access point
He had the AI find a way into his ISP device and change its settings. The AI turned it into a wireless access point with 802.11r, added an access point section to the control panel, and turned off the old ISP's updates and telemetry.
An agent set up his 100 home sensors and his pepper harvest was his biggest yet
A man let an agent live on his home network and finally get his hundred or so sensors and smart devices configured and talking to each other. This year he set up garden sensors with its help, tied soil, rain and sunlight readings into automated watering, and had by far the largest hot pepper harvest he has ever had.
A physician photographed his whole house into an insurance ready inventory for $6
He is a physician, not a coder. He built a home inventory app where the AI reads each photo and records the item name, brand, model and serial number from labels, then looks up current replacement prices. Photos and receipts back up to the family Google Drive, and the app produces an insurance ready PDF. The whole house cost about $6 in AI charges.
$6one time
The AI turned my designs into 3D files I could print
He needed his designs as 3D files he could print. The AI created the renders in Blender via MCP, then optimized the files for his printer.
The AI set up his Halloween lawn ornaments in Home Assistant in 5 minutes
The AI via MCP built a Home Assistant automation for Halloween lawn ornaments in 5 minutes, with a dashboard override button, and it ran.
The AI made my menu bar app. A shortcut now sets my lights.
He runs Home Assistant on an old PC and used AI to make a menu bar app for his Mac. A keyboard shortcut now sets his lights, though he says it may not work as well for homes with lots of different smart devices.
List my house for rent, answer inquiries, and fill it in 14 days at asking rent
The AI listed the user's house on Facebook Marketplace, answered renter inquiries, scheduled viewings, and the home rented in 14 days at the full asking rent.
The AI rebuilt my 20 years of address history from my email
He needed his address history for a co-op application and had struggled to dig out leases from a decade or more back. The AI searched more than 20 years of his Gmail and built a spreadsheet listing his addresses back to 2006, with links to the emails behind each date and a flag on the dates that were only a guess.
Diagnose my waterfall pump, design a 3D-printable adapter, and cut my car insurance
The AI diagnosed the user's failing waterfall pump, selected an efficient replacement, designed a 3D-printable adapter for it, and separately saved $1,100 a year moving car insurance from AAA to Progressive.
$1,100a year
My agent found the fault on my combine that a paid mechanic missed
A farmer's John Deere combine had an electronics fault for days and a paid Deere mechanic could not find it. Working with AI, he built a test suite that read the machine's CanBUS messages and the traces from his oscilloscope, and compared both against a second working combine. They found two faulty controllers and the machine runs again.
Sell my car end to end, from listing to licensing paperwork
The AI sold the user's car end to end: listing it, handling buyers, collecting CarMax and Carvana quotes, and preparing the licensing paperwork.
My Dot is handling my house purchase in Kyoto, in a language I do not speak
A man buying a house in Kyoto says his AI Dot is handling the whole move in Japanese, a language he does not speak. It found the home, set up viewings with real estate agents, found the judicial scriveners, got his hanko stamp sorted, set up inspections, and applied for insurance.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
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.