By what year will an AI be able to competently walk consumers through moderate time horizon home improvement tasks? Some tasks (suggested by Claude):
Install a dedicated outlet for an EV charger
Replace a shower valve
Hang a pre-hung interior door
Regrout a shower
Caveats for resolution criteria:
This task list isn't meant to be exhaustive.
"Walk consumers through" means the consumer needs no additional help, and task success rate is high.
The physical equivalent of vibecoding does not count: If some people are vibehandymanning that doesn't force a NO: as long as some people aren't this resolves YES.
I will resolve YES if it can only assist people with some existing skills in these areas: this is about supplying missing procedural knowledge, not teaching someone who's never touched a screwdriver to rewire their house.
If it can only assist people with professional experience that doesn't count.
I'll need either a number of trustworthy people to confirm that they do this, or for it to be broadly known that people do this regularly. I will also want at least some tradespeople to confirm that the work isn't all garbage (but do not require that this be consensus among the trades).
@tcheasdfjkl agreed, this should resolve yes today. AI can do this easily. If theres a gap it's the human failing to provide information or follow instructions.
@tcheasdfjkl If they can I haven't seen a demonstration, and I can't test it myself since I currently rent. If you have examples you can link to I'm happy to review. Note that the bar here is high: there need to be many cases of people actually doing this across many tasks, with some external confirmation that they aren't setting their house up to burn down a few years later.