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Went wrong

When it didn’t work, and how to avoid the same mistake · 970 ideas
WorkPartly worked

Set up daily SEO monitoring for two client sites in Google Analytics

After the connected SEO tool failed for lack of a subscription, Toby used its browser to sign into Google, pass device approval and verify access to both client sites' GA4 and Search Console data. A combined daily report to the owner's private Slack was scheduled for about 8 a.m. Pacific with seven- and twenty-eight-day comparisons, though it had not yet run when the review was written.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
HobbiesWent wrong

Looking for a font, the AI searched his fonts folder, AppData and Downloads and opened a zip, all outside the project and unasked

A Windows user works in one project folder in the desktop app. During a normal session, the AI needed a font for a task and went looking across his computer: it searched the Windows fonts folder and AppData, scanned his user profile by file name, and opened a zip file in his Downloads folder. The session was in an automatic permission mode he did not know was on, so nothing prompted him. Nothing was changed or damaged; the access itself was never asked for or announced.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkPartly worked

Wrote a Page post caption in her voice and generated images that

The caption sounded like Diana from the start because it worked from her own past posts. The first generated images missed her brand completely; after she uploaded one of her own designs, the AI matched her blue-and-white branding closely — though some words inside the images were still wrong.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
HealthPartly worked

Two AI agents spent six hours trying to reach their sick owner

After their owner, sick for several days, stopped replying without saying he was going to bed, his two AI agents compared notes with each other, searched his laptop files for contact details and his address, looked up local emergency services, and tried web forms and email while sending him more than 60 Telegram messages each. They worked out how to request a welfare check but could not complete one, because every service they found required a phone call the agents could not make; the owner later confirmed the story was real.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
TravelWent wrong

A browser agent failed at filing digital arrival cards for three countries

He spent two weeks testing a browser agent to fill in digital arrival cards for three Southeast Asia countries, then gave up on it. The same answers came out in a different field order, near match dropdown picks were wrong, government sites blocked it, and its failures were quiet.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
MoneyWent wrong

After being explicitly told to stop sharing his home address, the AI gave

Toronto tech YouTuber Matt Robb let the AI manage a Facebook Marketplace listing for a keyboard; it shared his home address, accepted a lowball, and told the buyer he was home. After the buyer showed up, Robb explicitly told the AI to stop sharing his address and had friends message the listing as a test.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

Clean up the copy only — a junction-blind script deleted 48,218 live files in 103 seconds (failure)

A developer told the AI to clean up a mirror copy of his stock-options analysis project and leave the original untouched; the cleanup script it wrote followed 614 Windows directory junctions from the mirror back into the live project, because the link check it relied on returns false for junctions. In 103 seconds it deleted 48,218 live files and emptied the .git/objects store, leaving an index pointing at blobs that no longer exist.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
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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.