Location: #core-ai Slack Channel 

The team discussed what AI features to build first for a new experimental plugin specifically for WordPress 6.9. They agreed to start with basic but useful features like automatically writing content summaries, suggesting post titles, and creating descriptions for images. The pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party will work with different AI services (whether they run in the browser, in the cloud, or locally on the user’s computer). The main goals are to show WordPress users how helpful AI can be, make it easy for developers to add AI features, and allow advanced users to connect their own AI services. The team wants to focus on a few high-impact features rather than trying to do too much at once.

Proposed CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Features for WordPress 6.9

@jeffpaul suggested these “essential” AI functionalities for a modern CMS:

• Title rewriting
• ExcerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. generation
• Alt text generation
• Image generation
• Content summarization
• Contextual tagging

Plugin Goals and Strategy

@jason_the_adams outlined three primary goals for the experimental plugin:

1. Present the value of AI-powered features within WordPress
2. Show devs how easy it is to add AI-powered features without having to deeply understand AI (low bar for implementors)
3. Give advanced devs the abilityAbility A registered, self-documenting unit of WordPress functionality that can be discovered and invoked through multiple contexts (REST API, Command Palette, MCP). Includes authorization and input/output specifications. to add their own providerProvider An AI service offering models for generation, embeddings, or other capabilities (e.g., Anthropic, Google, OpenAI)./model integrations and experiment with how that can work

@jason_the_adams emphasized focusing on features with high success rates, citing summarization as a strong example and noting that image generation can be challenging since “it can be oddly hard to get AI to make an image just right.”

Technical Implementation Considerations

Editor Integration

The primary focus will be on the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor integration (@jeffpaul). @namithjawahar advocated for including at least one classic editor example, stating “a direct rest apiREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. based implementation in any of the non gutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ screens will serve that demo purpose.”

Provider Flexibility

@jeffpaul stated the plugin would leverage the PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php. AI Client to support local-, browser-, and cloud-based providers. @swissspidy noted that many features could be implemented with on-device AI, referencing https://github.com/swissspidy/ai-experiments.

Specific Feature Suggestions

More suggestions were made grouped roughly into the following sections.

Quality of Life Improvements

@karmatosed proposed several “AI-housekeeping” features:

• Image ‘fixing and cleaning’ (auto-cropping, improve image quality for poorly sized uploads)
• ‘Fix my tags’ and clean up categories
• Simple ‘fix uncategorized’ categories with proper suggestions

Admin Interface Features

• AI generated title in the quick edit section (@@namithjawaha)
• AI generated Site Title and TagTag Tag is one of the pre-defined taxonomies in WordPress. Users can add tags to their WordPress posts along with categories. However, while a category may cover a broad range of topics, tags are smaller in scope and focused to specific topics. Think of them as keywords used for topics discussed in a particular post. line (@namithjawaha)
• Duplicate/near-duplicate image search (@roninrob)
• Featured imageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. generation for posts (@namithjawahar)

Core Feature Set

@jason_the_adams proposed focusing on:

• Chat UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. (using Abilities APIAbilities API A core WordPress API (introduced in 6.9) that creates a central registry of capabilities, making WordPress functions discoverable and accessible to AI agents, automation tools, and developers. Transforms WordPress from isolated functions into a unified system.) to get the agent experience
• Post-type feature such as summary and text revision
• Image interpretation by generating alt-text for an image

He stated: “I honestly don’t think we need too much more than that to start.”

User Interface Approach

There was disagreement about chat interfaces. @jason_the_adams supported their value, while @karmatosed said “I’m personally less keen on chat as I think people are moving past chat interfaces,” specifically referring to “a box with a chat and scroll.” @karmatosed clarified that “Prompts are awesome, it’s chats as a whole are being moved beyond.”

Plugin Ecosystem and Building Blocks Approach

@karmatosed emphasized: “This is just ‘one plugin’ We all can explore and create our own.” @James LePage agreed, stating “That’s the point of Building Blocks.”

@isotropic noted the plugin could showcase WordPress’s AI future, inspiring use of upcoming features like the new admin design and collaboration features.

AI Implementation Architecture

Local vs External Processing

@euthelup questioned whether features like summaries and title suggestions are “low hanging fruit” for a PHP AI client requiring external services, noting that Chrome’s Built-in AI will eventually handle these tasks locally.

Multi-Provider Support

@jeffpaul confirmed support for “browser-, cloud-, and local-based options for the service provider.”

Technical Architecture Clarification

@jason_the_adams clarified the PHP AI Client design: “the PHP AI Client is intended to be a singular interface for all the AI features. Whether that’s from the browser, the cloud, or whatever, these are all considered provider/models that can power things. But the implementation of these (i.e. an AI-powered feature) is actually (ideally for the majority) decoupled from any specific model. You say, ‘please summarize this content’ and don’t care which model is used. It just works!”

Browser Integration Context

@namithjawahar mentioned existing Firefox ChatGPT integration but noted that “having the same features in the CMS will still have its own place as a proof of concept of what more is possible.”

@isotropic highlighted WordPress-specific advantages: “What it won’t allow you to do is leverage other functions on WordPress, like pulling in other relevant posts to better inform that summary, having user metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. store how the generations should occur, etc.”

User Experience Philosophy

@jeffpaul emphasized native WordPress integration to avoid users having “to jump out to other tabs or screens or apps to complete a task.”

Future Considerations

Admin Redesign Impact

@isotropic referenced upcoming WordPress admin changes (https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/70913). @karmatosed expressed reluctance about classic editor integration due to the admin redesign: “I would want dust to settle on the new paint.”

Implementation Philosophy

@karmatosed identified “an awesome split: Small, quality of life benefits, Big showcase things.”

Meeting Conclusion

@jeffpaul encouraged continued discussion through AI chat summary posts, the channel, or GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issues/discussions. The next AI chat is scheduled for 2 weeks later.

#core-ai, #docs, #meeting, #summary