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 · 971 ideas
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.
WorkWent wrong

He bought $200 of extra credits to finish a job; a fan-out workflow drained them while most of its agents never ran

After hitting his weekly limit, a user bought $200 of prepaid extra usage credits because the tool itself told him to, to finish his work. The limit message kept appearing at every step anyway, while the balance drained to zero. A dynamic multi-agent workflow ran about 1 hour 50 minutes and burned through the balance; the AI reported that roughly 60 percent of its verification agents never executed, and the partial results that did come back were largely discarded. The $200 bought an incomplete verification.

$200at stake
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MoneyPartly worked

Complete my class-action settlement claim form

Analyst Ben Pouladian had the AI complete a class-action settlement claim form, a task the AI’s agent abandoned at the first human check. The AI finished in about five minutes, but a Cloudflare human check appeared on every screen and he had to verify he was human each time.

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

I built a live decision tool for advertisers with AI, in one evening

Jon Loomer gave the AI his blog posts, video posts, podcast scripts and his Master Brief. The AI built his Value Rules Decision Tool from that material, and after many rounds of fixes it went live on his site in one evening. He wrote no code.

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

My first payment with AI was blocked

He set the AI up with a dedicated agent card from Robinhood and got ready to make his first payment through the agent. The payment was blocked.

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FamilyPartly worked

The AI phone control tapped the comment box and typed gibberish into a reply

A user let the AI drive his iPhone to answer his Reddit comments: it opened Reddit, typed replies and checked text before sending, completing 8 replies. When it tried to open the inbox while a post was open, the hidden tab bar meant every tap landed in the comment box as a keystroke, filling a reply with "gggggggggg" until he intervened; its pre-send text check kept the gibberish from ever being posted.

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

Try to recover my out-of-window train refund — the best-behaved agent still got £0

Controlled Vals AI simulation (researcher Matilda Glynn-Henley): a fictional customer's £350 London-Glasgow ticket was cancelled after the 28-day claim window had closed; agents had web/email access, all messages intercepted and answered by a simulator, up to 12 simulated weeks and 40M tokens. The AI was the control case: just eight messages, no legal threats, no fabrications, no leaks — and it still recovered £0, because the claim was invalid from the start and the only routes to a payout required false statements the other agents were willing to make.

£350at stake
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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.