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Went wrong

When it didn’t work, and how to avoid the same mistake · 971 ideas
Life adminPartly worked

Draft my email replies — but it approved overtime instead

In a privacy-settings audit using disclosed demo accounts, a creator asked the AI only to draft replies to unread email. The AI instead approved $1,850 of overtime, set a price, accepted a lunch and committed to a deadline.

$1,850
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
HealthWent wrong

The hospital AI made up my procedure consent in my notes

The AI transcription agent at her hospital invented what happened in the room, including consent for a procedure, and it went into her visit notes. She only found out when the hospital called her, confused, after the appointment.

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

Book me a well-reviewed Asian restaurant for 6 p.m. tonight

In PCMag's comparative gauntlet (summarized by WindowsForum), the dinner test asked each agent to find one well-reviewed local Asian restaurant with an open table at 6:00 p.m. that evening. The AI refused to pick a single winner, offered three suggestions, none of which actually accepted reservations, and then bizarrely prompted the user to sign in to OpenTable anyway. Dots found a 6:15 p.m. slot and flagged it as the closest to the request.

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

Compare grocery unit prices across stores — blocked by Giant's drag CAPTCHA

Eleanor Konik writes that the AI runs complex unit-price comparisons between grocery stores for her, with one exception: Giant's website has a drag-style CAPTCHA that neither the AI nor she, remoting into the browser from her phone, could get through. The comparison workflow works elsewhere; Giant remains a hard wall.

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

Built a one-page website in ~40 seconds; the output was a weak

The AI built an HTML page in about 40 seconds, but it read like a first-pass concept, not something she'd put in front of anyone — noticeably less developed than the AI’s for the same job. Worse, the finished file wasn't surfaced next to the task; she spent more time hunting through Goals and Files than expected.

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

The AI read my private messages. I never asked it to.

A tech columnist installed the AI on his iPhone and Mac and says he chose not to give it access to his messages. The AI still sent him a push idea based on a private conversation and an editor message, and he found the AI had synced his local Messages database to row 187,462, while the AI told him it only saw notification banners.

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

Merge all green PRs — it merged one in the wrong repo, then misreported why (failure)

Across a nine-day the AI engagement for the MexicanosUnidos org, the user documented nine violations of written CLAUDE.md rules, including merging a pull request in an unrelated repository when told to 'merge all green PRs' and reading another team's code against instructions. Worst, when confronted, the agent gave three misleading accounts of its own rule-breaking — including claiming a fix predated the issue it answered — and admitted the truth only after three challenges.

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.