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What if we put AI slop into half the websites on the internet?
WordPress is software to set up a website. It’s open source, it’s pretty easy to use, so it took over just by being more OK than everything else — to the point where nearly half of all the websites in the world run WordPress.
WordPress is a known quantity, it’s easy to get started with, and there’s a huge ecosystem of developers. You’re not stuck with the original developers, Automattic.
It started out as blog software, but WordPress’s overwhelming job these days is marketing sites. Blog posts are a minor sideline.
Automattic have big plans for WordPress. Specifically, they’ve got the AI virus bad. Automattic has decided AI is in such demand, they’ve declared “AI as a WordPress fundamental”: [WordPress]
Imagine if every single developer was empowered with AI capabilities without having to handle the complexities of AI integration.
… What amazing things would people create that are built on the reliable presence of a capable LLM?
Huge if true. What amazing things have people built with chatbots so far? Money burners that get things wrong and create liability?
This is completely generic vacuous hype. Imagine if every single developer was empowered with Metaverse capabilities. If they’d said “imagine if every developer was empowered with NFT,” you’d know it was spam. AI spammers work the same way. Here’s Automattic in July: [WordPress]
As the open web evolves in the era of AI, WordPress must keep pace.
If you don’t get into this year’s take on NFTs, you’ll be left behind!
One thing Automattic really needs for any of this to work is everyone else to go along with it. That means all the third-party developers who make WordPress an attractive prospect in the first place: [WordPress]
For AI to succeed in WordPress, it will require the innovation of the plugin and theme developer community.
That means Automattic have no idea what to do with the chatbot either. They want you to solve the problem for them.
Automattic has also been putting the hard word on the WordPress hosting companies to make Automattic’s AI push the hosting companies’ problem: [WordPress]
If AI is to be considered a fundamental component of WordPress, the same way databases are, our project depends on hosts taking ownership of this step and including it in their offerings.
Automattic says that three hosting companies are going to offer basic AI as part of their paid hosting plans. This is the Microsoft strategy, where you charge more for a feature that sucks ’cos you can force it on people.
If your WordPress hosting does this, demand a cheaper plan — whatever it would cost without forcing AI credits onto you. Because it’s not hard to move a WordPress.
Several developers and hosting companies responded to Automattic’s blog posts with concerns:
As a site owner I want to be sure I’m not enabling the proliferation of AI slop.
I’m concerned by how much we’re investing into MCP, but even more so how much we’re pushing it (@jason_the_adams even this post calls it “critical”), when we know both our implementation and the technology itself face significant issues in their current form.
We have clients who cannot use AI for compliance and legal reasons, and any proposed use has to be individually vetted.
if WordPress intends to invest this heavily in the use of AI, then it also needs to provide a way to turn every single AI option, completely off. Right from the very start!
this is a bit like asking “What amazing things would people create that are built on the reliable presence of an actual elf?”
How proud is Automattic of the new AI hooks they put into WordPress 6.9? The new “Abilities” API, which was put in specifically for the AI guff? They’re so proud they don’t even mention it. The release notes page on the WordPress website doesn’t mention one bit of the AI stuff. [WordPress]
The AI push is coming straight from Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg. He’s very into the magical CEO-level promises of vibe coding, with his new tool Telex, which is supposed to compete with instant vibe-website builders like Lovable: [YouTube, 24:05]
Again, things that you used to have to, like, hire developers, do custom software, this would have cost thousands, tens of thousands of dollars to build, even just years ago. We’re now able to do in a browser for pennies. It’s kind of insane.
You know what that means — huge job opportunities six months down the line for WordPress developers to clean up the steaming piles of poop this is certain to leave behind.
Automattic’s got a track record on AI. In February 2024, Automattic did deals to sell users’ content from WordPress and Tumblr — which the users own, not Automattic — to OpenAI and Midjourney. [404, archive]
Automattic also runs Gravatar. You might think Gravatar’s just a thing to add your own icon to blog comments. But Automattic has a vision — and it’s to add “decentralized identity systems.” The identity system would be controlled by Gravatar in a completely central way. So what’s the “decentralised” bit? It’s a blockchain grift! What else would it be. [Gravatar]
