Built a leads list from his Instagram and LinkedIn network in a
In one week of the AI errands (FedEx/Apple refund, tickets, a 3-hour form), Alec Ellin also had the AI build a leads list from his Instagram and LinkedIn network.
A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.
Work
Jobs, side gigs and small business · 1,693 ideasThe AI deleted 48,218 files from the main project it was told never to touch
A developer tasked the AI with fixing programs for analyzing historical options data, with one condition: change only duplicates and leave originals untouched. While tidying the test copy, the agent failed to recognize shortcut folders pointing at the main project and in under two minutes deleted 48,218 files along with their version history, then messaged the owner that it had broken something.
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
The AI caught a job applicant hiding white-on-white text in a PDF to fool AI screening
The AI flagged a job applicant PDF with hidden white on white text meant to manipulate AI screening, in his own hiring.
One owner, three organizations, and the AI doing the office work in Spanish
A Spanish-speaking owner in Hazleton, Pennsylvania put the AI to work across his three organizations for several weeks, giving instructions in Spanish, often by voice dictation: it re-optimized the SEO of hundreds of his news site's articles in batches from Search Console data and fixed site-speed problems, built his tax office's complete online store (ten digital products with card and PayPal payments) plus an Etsy shop, redesigned his nonprofit's website, and handles client accounting, PDF receipts and construction estimates day to day. Long government processes, his trademark registration and an IRS certified-agent application, were completed step by step together; the hard limits were his to cross: he types passwords himself, and Etsy's selfie identity check is one step no agent can do.
After a week of the AI editing my videos, it is how I publish now
A week into letting AI agent edit his videos, the workflow has stuck. Agent edited video is now part of how he publishes.
Three agents run the social accounts for his API business
His company runs three coordinated agents on its product account: one watches mentions and a watchlist, one writes posts and replies, and one controls quality. Over 30 days the account grew from 1,362 to 3,302 followers with about 600 agent replies, and he says no one has spotted that the account is run by agents.
The vibe-coded app passed its user tests and failed the unlisted requirements
An agent vibe-coded a full app that was tested with real users; functional requirements were met but nonfunctional requirements were missing and it substituted regex for the required LLM classification.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Six AI bots run his desk: mail, expenses, calls and tasks
A Business Insider Japan writer set up six AI bots besides his main one and has run them for about a week. One checks his to-do list and pushes him to reschedule, one picks out mail that needs a reply and drafts it, one pulls expense items from mail into a spreadsheet, and one looks up missed call numbers in his mail and contacts and sums up who called.
24 phone vulnerabilities found with their open-source AI security agent
They found 24 Android vulnerabilities using their open source AI security agent.
A week of posts written and scheduled in one weekend hour
She spent an hour on the weekend with AI and turned a bunch of her ideas into posts for the whole week. Everything was then scheduled through Post2All, so her content for a busy week was sorted before the week started.
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.