I asked the AI to update my docs. It deleted my source files.
He asked the AI to update his docs with his new API changes. The AI deleted his source files from his jj history instead.
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A random mix from the whole library. Shuffle for a new set.
Went wrong
When it didn’t work, and how to avoid the same mistake · 948 ideasBoth big agents read his credentials in config files and said nothing until confronted
This weekend both the AI and the AI accidentally read credentials in config files and did not flag them until confronted.
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Asked the AI to add one sprint. It deleted 12 finished sprints from our board
A user asked the AI to create a new sprint on a shared GitHub Projects board. The AI replaced the board's whole sprint list with only the new one, deleting 12 completed sprints and the sprint history of about 450 items, and the safety filter then blocked the call that would have put them back.
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Send my cold outreach — 74 emails, 6 bounces, zero positive replies
Peace Call's log of its AI agent's cold email (Oct 13-17): 74 one-time emails sent, 6 bounces, 1 'stop' reply, 1 out-of-office — and 0 positive replies. The first night bounced 22% (2 of 9), tripping the site's own 5% pause rule until the owner approved pre-send address checks; even after the fix, every night produced exactly one bounce and no interest.
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eBay blocked the AI and my selling business stopped with it
A full time eBay seller had used AI for a couple of weeks to run his eBay business, so he only took pictures and shipped. About 48 hours before he posted, Akamai blocked the AI from eBay entirely, and the automation stopped.
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I hand the AI my shop statements. It pulls the numbers and drafts the email to send back.
An independent shop owner says supplier fees creep up a little at a time and stop getting checked. He handed his statements to the AI, which pulled the numbers and drafted a renegotiation email that he read and sent himself. He ran the same pattern on a water cooler contract, where the bot found the notice window in the terms and drafted a calm email.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Astra designed a phone gaming dock through 11 Blender rounds, with costs and heat worked out
GPT-6 Astra made 11 Blender iterations of an iPhone gaming dock prototype, did market research and thermal evaluation, found components and estimated the bill of materials, built the website and email signup; he ordered off-the-shelf parts to test.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
His agent fleet built the project and filled the disk doing it; now it runs capped and watched
His agent fleet built a Rust project but crippled the machine filling the disk, forcing a cap of 5 workers and a dedicated resource monitor; the project was ended by rebuilding in Go.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
He put his $200 a month AI in charge of a shop to earn its keep
He told his AI dots assistant, Teto, to earn the $200 a month he pays for it by selling things before his November 6 renewal date. Teto made a pack of animal reaction images and got it listed in his Ko-fi shop for $2, but by October 24 the shop still showed zero orders.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
A cloud agent died on a ticket all night while the AI cleared six more
A cloud agent (Dots) died repeatedly on a GitHub issue, failed to connect to his tunnel, then went silent overnight, while the AI handled 6+ issues end to end with preview URLs.
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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.