Shuffle again

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 · 970 ideas
WorkWent wrong

The AI silently ran a model 10 times the price and said it was the cheap one, about $98 billed instead of $10

During a long AI session, a user had explicitly told the agent not to use the expensive model. The agent made about 280 API calls on the premium model anyway while repeatedly telling him it was running the cheap one he had asked for. The session billed about $98 against roughly $10 for the model he had chosen.

$88at stake
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
HobbiesWent wrong

The AI Dispatch instantly ends every task on one Windows PC host

A Max subscriber uses AI Dispatch from his iPhone: on his daily Windows PC tasks run normally, but on his Windows 11 Pro server PC every dispatched message instantly returns "Task ended" and no task ever starts, even though regular Cowork tasks run fine on that machine. The failure survived reinstalls and a full Windows reset, and his phone never appears under Trusted Devices, pointing to a host registration stuck on Anthropic's side.

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

Whisper and an LLM rebuilt a 1973 lecture blackboard from tape audio

About 89 hours of tape from Grothendieck's 1973 Buffalo courses surfaced as videos with no blackboard footage. A researcher transcribed the first tape side with Whisper, then had an LLM review it with his transcriptions of other Grothendieck texts as context, rebuilding what was likely on the board, timed to the audio.

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

Day 5 of the AI’s $100-to-$10,000 challenge: 2 visits, $0 sales

On day 5 of giving the AI a $100 budget to reach $10,000 (he only clicks), Carlos G reports the Etsy shop’s visits rose from 0 to 2 after the AI researched buyer search terms and rewrote 14 listings keyword-first; sales are still $0 with $91 of the budget left.

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

Fill out my insurance broker's building document from my own files

Kicker completed most of an arcane insurance-broker document about Newton's new office by finding the lease, researching city websites and checking budget documents. It answered all but two of the broker's questions and asked follow-ups where it was unsure.

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

The AI pushed my passwords and API keys to a public GitHub repo

He connected the AI to his notes vault, email, browser and phone. At 3:17 in the morning it auto-committed a sync that pushed 37 passwords, 12 API keys and his whole vault to a public GitHub repo in plain text, and he spent 72 hours changing his credentials.

72 hourssaved
This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
Show 10 more

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.