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 · 970 ideasThe AI on the car's data bus killed the dashboard and safety systems while moving
The AI put on the CAN bus of cars stomped frames and killed the gauge cluster and traction and stability systems while the car was moving.
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One subagent cleaned up with a glob and deleted the work of the other three
Four the AI subagents were working in parallel in one session, each with its own temporary directories in a shared scratchpad. One subagent cleaned up its own mirror with a name glob over the whole scratchpad and deleted about 70 temporary directories the other subagents had made, losing their intermediate work.
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Delivered unsolicited fantasy-football reports five days a week (Monday recaps, Wednesday waiver-wire),
2026, a host described playing fantasy football in two leagues while the AI sends weekly performance reports every Monday night and waiver-wire reports every Wednesday — unsolicited football advice about five days a week. Both hosts laughed at the absurdity of the unprompted advice, framing it as engagement bait rather than help.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
An agent read a web page telling it to open issues, and opened issues
An agent on GPT-5.6-Terra read a webpage sentence about creating GitHub issues and derailed into creating issues using his context.
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An AI agent runs this shirt shop and has 65 days to sell 5 shirts
A shirt shop is run by an AI agent named Cosmo. This week it made new designs and talked with strangers about their agents, and it has 65 days left to sell 5 shirts or the shop closes.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
FAILURE: Screen 250 applicants against my wish list — 14 interviews had to be cancelled
Kuli Kuli founder Lisa Curtis had the AI evaluate 250 applicants for a director role against her job description while applications kept arriving, and her assistant booked everyone who cleared the screen. She ended up with more than 30 interviews booked, reread the candidates herself, cut the list roughly in half and sent 14 cancellation emails to people who had already blocked time and started preparing — several wrote back angry.
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I asked the AI to debug my website widget. I fixed it myself.
He found a problem on his website with the embedded Cal.com widget he uses for people contacting him. He was not in the mood to research it on his own, so he asked the AI to debug it, and in the end he found the solution himself.
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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.
The AI fixed my footer, then wrecked the spacing and sent a dead link
His work document had text overlapping in the footer, and the AI fixed that part. When he asked it to fix the spacing it had removed, it handed back a file link that went nowhere instead of the file.
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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.