New AI Initiative Module Unifies Drupal AI Tools and Features

A significant development has emerged in the Drupal ecosystem with the announcement of a new AI Initiative module. Reported by Jamie Abrahams from FreelyGive and Marcus Johansson from OSK Berlin, this module aims to consolidate the best features of various AI modules into a comprehensive set of foundational tools for all AI applications in Drupal.

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"Today, we are excited to announce the first alpha release, featuring an AI abstraction layer. Currently, it supports OpenAI and Anthropic, with Ollama, Mistral, Google AI, and Huggingface integrations coming soon."

noted Jamie on his LinkedIn post.

Edit: They have also posted an introductory video on the module, which can be viewed here. 

2023 was a landmark year for artificial intelligence, with terms like ChatGPT, LLM, Generative AI, Bard, Co-Pilot, and BingChat becoming part of everyday vocabulary. The potential of generative AI captured global attention, leading to its integration into content management systems (CMS) like Drupal, offering numerous benefits to users.

In early 2023, a module integrating ChatGPT and OpenAI for Drupal 10 was released. Utilizing OpenAI's API, this module enhances content management and maintenance tasks. With nearly 1000 installs, it has become one of the most popular AI integration modules. 

Concurrently, the AI Interpolator module showcased different AI applications within a CMS, highlighting the potential for creating complex applications without extensive coding. These efforts positioned Drupal as a pioneering open-source CMS offering free AI integration, surpassing some closed-source or proprietary counterparts.

The new AI module for Drupal offers a comprehensive and unified framework for integrating artificial intelligence into Drupal sites. It combines the best features and approaches from various modules, such as AI Interpolator, OpenAI, Augmentor, and more. 

“The AI module provides all the foundational features you will need to build powerful and magical AI-powered features or applications, from the simple to the complex with little to no code. Whilst giving you expected out-of-the-box functionality to get you started.”

Key features of the AI module include AI Core, which provides access to common AI models and is extendable to accommodate any required model, allowing modules and recipes to swap models as needed. AI Automators enable users to populate and modify any field in Drupal using large language models (LLMs), creating complex AI applications through simple or intricate workflows. AI Search enhances content discovery by understanding the semantic meaning of search terms, integrating embeddings and vector databases into the Search API to reduce hallucinations and improve data retrieval. Additionally, the module offers various extras, such as CK Editor widgets, chatbots, a prompt explorer, and debugging tools, providing a robust starting point for building AI capabilities within Drupal.

Key contributors to this initiative also include Kevin Quillen from Velir, Michal Gow, and Scott Euser from Soapbox. Their collaborative efforts aim to identify the most significant and valuable AI-powered features for inclusion in Starshot’s 2024 release, reaffirming Drupal's position at the forefront of innovation.

"Over the next month, we will introduce AI Search to the module. This feature will allow you to index your site or content with AI, enabling AI-powered content discovery and question answering (RAG). Additionally, the AI Automators module will be added, offering a user-friendly GUI for automating site tasks, creating content, or building full AI applications through flexible workflows."

 - Jamie Abrahams said. 

Drupal's founder, Dries Buytaert, noted that Drupal had led many "golden eras of the web," including low-code/no-code capabilities and democratizing web publishing. This new AI Initiative continues that tradition by making it easier for beginners to start with Drupal and enabling non-technical users to build complex AI applications with minimal coding.

The Drupal community is encouraged to join the #ai channel on Drupal Slack to stay updated or participate in this initiative. 

On June 19, 2024, from 21:00 to 23:30 CEST, the Drupal community gathered for the Drupal AI Meetup, an online event designed to transform the Drupal experience with AI. Organized by Nico Grienauer, the meetup featured expert-led talks on successful strategies for implementing AI content workflows, automating image ALT and content meta descriptions, and insights on Starshot. Jamie and Marcus provided a walk-through of the module during this event.

To learn more about the module, read the blog post by FreelyGive or visit the drupal.org page. The press release can be found here.