An intern built an AI chatbot for an undefined reason

“It's not indexed.”— Kevin, An intern

Reason:

Officially because the mandatory field is documented as optional. Presented in a town hall as "innovation".

Built by:

Kevin, a working student

Build time:

one weekend

Built with:

Excel macros, exposed over HTTP

Database:

a private Slack channel called #data-backup

Authentication:

the session never expires because that was annoying

Deployment:

deployed from the main branch because branches were confusing

Responsible:

a team that has since been reorganised

Documentation:

a README that begins with "temporary notes"

Security situation:

there is one shared admin account

Future disaster:

It will be used for payroll by accident.

Age: 1.8 years · originally expected to last 3 weeks · 1 owner so far · last meaningful change 672 days ago · original builder left 75 days ago

Rated rare mostly because: 463 users, 55% chance of becoming business critical, alive 32x longer than intended.