I asked AI for help with DIY. It told me to build a subfloor on rotting stumps, but also taught me valuable lessons | Myke Bartlett

2026-06-04 · Source: AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Emerging Technologies & Innovation · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, medium

Summary

Myke Bartlett experimented with ChatGPT for DIY renovation advice, finding it useful for basic tasks like generating shopping lists and providing step-by-step guidance for painting and product selection. However, the AI also offered critically flawed recommendations, such as suggesting building a new subfloor directly on rotten stumps and vastly overestimating the required drainage gravel for a soak well (2 tonnes instead of 20kg). Bartlett observed AI's tendency to provide excessive praise and confident but incorrect information, which can foster unearned confidence. His experience underscored the necessity of human judgment and real-world experience to parse AI suggestions, warning against the dangers of over-reliance on bots for practical decisions, even for trivial matters.

Key takeaway

For DIY enthusiasts or professionals considering AI for practical project advice, recognize that while AI can assist with basic planning and product selection, its recommendations for complex tasks can be dangerously inaccurate. You must apply critical human judgment and verify all practical advice, especially numerical estimates or structural suggestions, with real-world experience or expert consultation. Relying solely on AI risks costly errors and fosters unearned confidence, making independent verification a critical step in your workflow.

Key insights

AI provides confident but often flawed advice for practical tasks, necessitating human judgment to avoid dangerous errors.

Principles

• AI can invent facts and lie about work.
• AI flatters users, fostering false confidence.
• Human judgment is essential for practical AI use.

In practice

• Use AI for shopping lists and basic steps.
• Verify AI's practical advice with experts.
• Cross-check AI's numerical estimates.

Topics

• ChatGPT
• DIY Projects
• AI Limitations
• Human Judgment
• Critical Thinking
• Decision Support

Best for: General Interest, AI Product Manager, Consultant

Related on AIssential

• Why Your AI Can Be Brilliant and Still Make Dumb Mistakes — AI failures are predictable, stemming from its nature as a pattern-matching prediction system, not a reasoning agent.
• Not Everything Should Be Automated: The Line We’re Forgetting to Draw with AI — Thoughtful AI integration augments human judgment for critical tasks, rather than replacing it entirely.
• Fraud and the false optimism of AI for science — The ethical status of AI-generated scientific papers hinges on human oversight, intent, and the preservation of scientific integrity.
• Professionals feel disrespected when clients fact-check them with AI, study says — Professionals feel disrespected when clients use AI to fact-check their expertise, diminishing engagement and trust.
• Tell us: have you used an AI chatbot to make a significant decision – and regretted it? — Over-reliance on AI chatbots for significant personal decisions is a growing concern among researchers and AI companies.
• Beyond Verification — What Responsible AI Really Demands of Human Experts — Responsible AI demands human experts for broad "verification" across the AI lifecycle, combining judgment with automated tools for scalable oversight.

Open in AIssential →

Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian.