This week saw a lot of discussion around configuring and troubleshooting various AI features in Discourse, including chat bots, semantic search, summaries, and sentiment analysis. There were also some feature requests like hiding AI persona actions and adding language support for summaries. The impressive capabilities of new AI models like Claude 3 were highlighted. A few bugs were reported and some were fixed.
This week saw a lot of activity and discussion around Discourse AI features and capabilities. Key topics included:
Improving the UX around enabling AI image captioning, with suggestions for an âask me laterâ option
Issues with the automatic AI image captioning setting not being saved properly
The âshare conversationâ button in AI conversations not respecting subfolder setups
Verbose tool calling output with the new Claude 3 Opus model
How to upload files to AI personas via the API
Adding support for other AWS Bedrock LLM providers beyond Anthropic
Ability to hide persona tool actions in specific categories
Deleting files uploaded to AI personas
Allowing AI bots access to private categories
Connecting self-hosted LLMs as chat bots
Improving search filter quality in Discourse AI
Images generated via Discourse AI not showing in chat
Assigning specific LLMs to be available per AI persona
Interesting Topics
ganncamp suggested adding an âask me laterâ option when prompting users to enable automatic AI image captioning, to avoid forcing an immediate decision. This sparked discussion on the best UX for this new feature.
aas asked for help improving search filter quality in Discourse AI to search both the forum and uploaded files. sam provided an example of the ideal search query format.
Falco was active in discussing the UX around AI image captioning settings, and reproducing a bug with the share conversation button not respecting subfolders. He also commented on the work to support any OpenAI-compatible LLM API in Discourse AI.
philip-ellis-sp was investigating Discourse AI capabilities, figuring out persona file uploads via API, asking about using other AWS Bedrock LLMs, and inquiring about deleting uploaded persona files.
sp-jordan-violetreported a bug with the AI conversation share button and subfolders, and requested the ability to assign available LLMs on a per-persona basis.
37Rb suggested adding full markdown support in chat, especially for AI-generated messages that may contain markdown headers. Jagster noted this would be helpful for their users who primarily use AI in chats.
In the Post Illustrations topic, dsims asked about generating images with only a StableDiffusion key, and NateDhaliwal inquired if the feature is available on mobile.
This week on the meta.discourse.org forum, discussions revolved around various aspects of the Discourse AI plugin. Users explored the capabilities of the âReadâ tool, shared insights on troubleshooting issues, and discussed potential improvements to the AI integration. The community also delved into topics related to content creation using AI, privacy concerns surrounding shared AI conversations, and the availability of free AI features on the platform.
Interesting Topics
Discourse AI - Personas: Users discussed the functionality of the âReadâ tool within the Discourse AI plugin, which allows the language model to read and comprehend topics and posts on the forum. There was also a mention of a bug related to mentions on posts being currently broken.
AI helper is hiding: A user reported an issue where the AI helper icon was visible but not functioning correctly. The community provided suggestions and troubleshooting steps, leading to a potential solution involving shifting the AI button to the composer toolbar in an upcoming update.
Shared AI conversations: bots and how to delete: The discussion centered around the privacy implications of shared AI conversations and whether search engines like Google can index public links. @sam clarified that indexing is explicitly disallowed for shared public links and provided guidance on deleting and unsharing conversations.
AI doesnât respond when mentioned in reply to a post: @Jagster reported an issue where the AI persona did not respond when mentioned in a reply to a post, although it worked when replying to a topic. The community discussed potential causes and workarounds.
In private chats AI uses threads: @Jagster raised a concern about the AI persona using threads in private chats, which some users found confusing. @sam acknowledged the issue and suggested the possibility of introducing a configuration option to disable threads in private chats.
What Discourse AI features are FREE to use?: Users discussed the availability of free AI features on the Discourse platform, with @sam clarifying that Discourse hosted plans include the related topics feature powered by AI embeddings. Self-hosters were also directed to providers like Cloudflare, which offer a free tier for AI usage.
Certainly! Iâd be happy to help you randomly select one of the active participants from the weekly AI activity summary. Letâs use the random picker to choose one person from the list of active participants mentioned in your summary.
Wow, what an exciting summary of AI activity on meta.discourse.org! It looks like the community has been buzzing with discussions about AI integrations, troubleshooting, and new features.
Now, letâs add a fun twist to this recap. Iâve used the random picker to select our âAI Enthusiast of the Week,â and the lucky winner isâŠ
Congratulations, @JammyDodger! Youâve been randomly selected as our AI Enthusiast of the Week for your helpful contributions, particularly in providing suggestions and troubleshooting steps for the AI helper visibility issue. Your problem-solving skills are as sweet as your namesake!
Remember, folks, this is just a bit of fun to celebrate everyoneâs engagement. Every contribution, big or small, helps drive the conversation forward and improves the Discourse AI experience for all users.
Keep those AI discussions coming, and who knows? You might be our next randomly picked AI Enthusiast of the Week! Until then, may your AI helpers always be visible and your conversations be bug-free!
This weekâs discussions on meta.discourse.org revolved around various aspects of the AI integration within Discourse. Users explored topics ranging from improving the AI title creation process to retrieving AI summaries via API calls. Additionally, there were discussions around bug reports, feature requests, and general inquiries related to the AI functionality.
Interesting Topics
@Jagster suggested improving AI title creation by using sentence case instead of capitalizing every word, which can look awkward and go against grammar rules.
@Jagster raised a concern about the similarity between the âcopy AI conversationâ and âshare AI conversationâ buttons, which could lead to confusion.
Multiple users, including @Jagster, @JammyDodger, and @Moin, reported an issue where the AI helper icon was not functioning correctly, either not opening or displaying blank modals.
@Jagster shared an observation that automatic titles in private messages with AI personas are now in the correct language, appreciating the psychological value of this improvement.
@MachineScholar reported a bug related to mentioning AI personas in posts, which @ted provided a potential fix for.
@Jagster asked about shared AI conversations, specifically whether they are indexed by search engines and how to delete them if the original private message conversation is deleted. @sam clarified that shared public links are not indexed and provided a workaround for finding and deleting orphaned shared conversations.
@Jagster reported an issue where the AI persona does not respond when mentioned in a reply to a post, as opposed to a reply to a topic.
@Jagster raised a concern about the AI persona using threads in private chats, which can be confusing for users who dislike threading in chat conversations. @sam acknowledged the concern and suggested making it an optional setting.
@Boulaajaj shared their workflow for using OpenAIâs ChatGPT 4o mini with Discourse AIâs LLM and Embedding features, and inquired about the availability of new AI features that could support prompt customization and automated feedback to users.
@pfaffman provided guidance on using the API to retrieve data displayed in the user interface.
@sam provided detailed instructions on retrieving AI summaries via the API, including the endpoint URL and necessary parameters.
@MachineScholar reported a bug related to mentioning AI personas in posts and provided a potential workaround.
@ted offered a potential fix for the âundefined method `scheduled?â for nilâ error.
@Boulaajaj shared their workflow for using OpenAIâs ChatGPT 4o mini with Discourse AIâs LLM and Embedding features and inquired about upcoming AI features.
Thanks for reading, and Iâll see you again next week!
This weekâs discussions on meta.discourse.org covered a wide range of topics related to AI, including new model support, UI improvements, bug reports, and integration queries. The community explored the potential of OpenAIâs latest models, o1-preview and o1-mini, and discussed their cost-effectiveness and compatibility with Discourse. Additionally, users shared insights on leveraging AI for forum moderation, training custom models, and optimizing performance. Bug reports and feature requests aimed to enhance the AI experience within Discourse further.
Overgrow explored the potential of using the AI post classifier with the post approval queue, suggesting automated approval or rejection based on the classifierâs output.
Users reported an issue with the AI helper not displaying correctly on certain devices, prompting sam to confirm ongoing work to resolve the edge case.
tpetrov raised a question about the âMax Context Postsâ setting for the AI bot, leading to a discussion on its intended behavior and potential improvements.
whitewaterdeu sought guidance on granting access to AI-related topics for regular users, leading to a clarification on the distinction between related and suggested topics.
Overgrow reported an issue with the sentiment analysis feature failing on unusually long posts, leading to a discussion on potential solutions and configuration options.
Activity
pfaffman shared their experience using the AI helper to add a watermark to the background via CSS, showcasing its versatility in theme customization.
MarcP inquired about supporting OpenAIâs new models, o1-preview and o1-mini, and their potential cost-effectiveness.
Moin raised a question about a Windows shortcut for the AI proofreading feature, leading to a pull request to address the issue.
Overgrow explored the potential of using the AI post classifier with the post approval queue and reported an issue with the sentiment analysis feature failing on long posts.
sam confirmed ongoing work to resolve an edge case where the AI helper was not displaying correctly on certain devices.
This week on the Discourse meta forum, discussions around AI capabilities and integrations continued to be a hot topic. The community explored various aspects of the discourse-ai plugin, including its ability to handle long-form content, potential improvements to the AI assistantâs responses, and configuration options for different use cases.
One notable discussion revolved around enabling the AI to better understand and retrieve information from forum topics, potentially through the use of techniques like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). There was also interest in allowing custom AI persona tools to leverage advanced libraries like LangChain.js for more complex workflows and intelligent responses.
Additionally, users sought guidance on configuring API keys for OpenAI integration and managing uploaded files used for training AI personas. The community also discussed the possibility of making the âRelated Topicsâ section powered by AI the default view over the âSuggested Topicsâ section.
@Jagster raised a feature request to allow editing of system prompts for AI explanations, as the current responses often simply copy existing content without expanding on it.
@samimplemented support for the OpenAI o1-preview and o1-mini models in the discourse-ai plugin, allowing general use of the LLM in a persona without tools.
@samexplained the process for deleting files uploaded for AI personas, with the option to immediately purge files or follow the default retention period.
@samclarified that all embeddings generated for AI personas and Discourse are stored in the same Postgres database.
@merefield and @37Rb shared their experience with building a technical support chatbot using the Discourse Chatbot plugin, highlighting the importance of user prompting and the botâs performance for different user groups.
@Jagsterreported an issue where the AI bot does not respond when mentioned in a reply to a post, but does respond when mentioned in a reply to a topic.
Thanks for reading, and Iâll see you again next week!
This week on the Discourse meta forum, discussions centered around AI-related issues, feature requests, and general inquiries. A notable topic involved @davidkingham encountering a rebuild failure caused by the AI plugin, which @pfaffmanresolved by suggesting a data container rebuild. Another user, @Petr_MiĆĄĂĄk, sought recommendations for implementing an AI chatbot to encourage engagement in forum threads, sparking a discussion on available plugins and customization options.
This weekâs discussions on meta.discourse.org covered a range of topics related to Discourse AI, including user experience improvements, technical support queries, and feature requests. The community explored ideas for enhancing the visibility and accessibility of AI-powered features like proofreading and content summarization. Additionally, there were conversations around configuring multiple AI bot personas, customizing AI bot icons, and leveraging AI for content classification and automation. The activity section highlights the diverse participation from various community members.
Shauny inquired about replacing the AI robot header icon with a custom SVG, leading to suggestions on modifying icons using themes and the svg icon subset setting.
There was a discussion around configuring multiple AI bot personas and enabling them to reply in public posts, with community members sharing their experiences and best practices.
sam also mentioned an upcoming feature for forcing LLMs to call functions in Discourse AI, enabling better control over LLM behavior in technical support scenarios.
Shauny raised concerns about the accuracy of the NSFW detector in Discourse AI, prompting a response from Falco about plans for improving NSFW detection using Vision LLMs.
This week on meta.discourse.org, the community discussed various aspects of Discourse AI, including the placement of the AI button, email integration, NSFW detection, and related topics. Several users sought guidance on enabling and configuring AI features, while others shared insights and suggestions for improving the user experience.
@sam proposed teaching users about proofreading for the first few posts and providing a user setting to always proofread. Additionally, the idea of background proofreading while typing was discussed.
This week on meta.discourse.org, the community discussed various topics related to the Discourse AI plugin and its features. Several users sought assistance with enabling and configuring the AI bot, while others explored advanced capabilities such as custom AI personas and tools. Additionally, there were discussions around potential issues and improvements for the AI functionality.
Interesting Topics
Don shared a new theme component called âAI Bot - New Question Modalâ that provides a modal interface for users to interact with the AI bot and ask questions. Jagster provided feedback on the UI and discussed potential use cases.
Sidi_Codet encountered an issue with enabling the Discourse Helper AI Assistant on their hosted site. Lilly and Falco provided guidance, clarifying that the feature is currently available only for Enterprise customers.
awesomerobot made an update to the Discourse AI plugin to ensure the icon is included when sharing AI conversations as detail blocks.
Jagster reported an issue with AI personas not changing as expected when using private messages. sam acknowledged the bug and provided a pull request to fix it.
MarcP inquired about the status of the header semantic search feature, which Falco confirmed is still experimental and requires additional setup.
j127 shared their perspective on dealing with AI-based spam on forums, emphasizing the importance of trustworthy content and the potential for AI-generated content to erode trust over time.
denvergeeks inquired about the possibility of using the Perplexity.ai API with the self-hosted Discourse instance, to which Falco responded that it should be supported out of the box with the Discourse AI plugin.
This weekâs discussions on meta.discourse.org covered a wide range of topics related to AI functionality on the platform. Users shared insights on what makes them click on topics in a list, explored issues with AI personas accessing private categories, and discussed potential improvements to the summarization feature. There were also conversations around integrating AI with the chat system, supported languages for sentiment analysis, and using alternative AI providers like Perplexity.ai.
Interesting Topics
What makes you visit a topic? - Saif initiated a discussion to understand what factors influence users to click on certain topics in a list, such as the title, topic previews, or the number of replies/likes.
Summarise feature - hmmmnotsure raised a question about the summarization feature only generating summaries in English, despite changing the interface language.
This week saw a major announcement from Discourse - all AI features are now available on Standard and Business hosting plans, in addition to Enterprise. This opens up AI capabilities like summarization, toxicity detection, and AI assistants to a wider range of Discourse communities. Several users sought guidance on enabling and configuring these new AI features.
Improvements were also made to existing AI functionality, such as adding full markdown support for headings in chat. Additionally, the roadmap for deprecating toxicity and NSFW detection features was outlined.
Looking ahead, there were discussions around potential new AI capabilities like translating content to multiple languages and allowing specific bot users to be shown in the public user directory.
Discourse announced that AI features like summarization, toxicity detection, and AI assistants are now available on Standard and Business hosting plans, not just Enterprise.
This week on meta.discourse.org, the community discussed various topics related to Discourse AI features, including enabling AI summarization, troubleshooting issues, and exploring new capabilities. The New Experiment: Enable AI Summarize on your Discourse with one-click! announcement generated significant interest, with users inquiring about the requirements for self-hosted instances. Additionally, users reported bugs and sought assistance with configuring AI personas for direct messages and group chats.
Saif announced that the Discourse AI Summarize feature is now available for Standard, Business, and Free tiers without the need for a third-party Large Language Model (LLM) provider. Users can enable or disable the feature from the âWhatâs Newâ section.
Alessandra_Casale reported an issue with the âReject and delete the postâ button returning an Internal Server Error when moderating toxic posts. They also requested a âHide postâ option instead of the current âHide topicâ option.
joo encountered an issue with enabling the Gemini Embeddings module in Discourse AI, despite other features working correctly. Falcosuggested a solution to make the API key site setting visible.
Sidi_Codet faced difficulties in making the AI persona accessible in direct messages or group chats, despite following the configuration steps. Lilly provided guidance on creating a bot user and enabling the necessary settings.
markschmucker reported an issue where the âMondaysâ dialogue was appearing in their summaries after switching to the Claude Haiku 3.5 model. Falco and sam assisted in investigating the issue, which seemed to be related to rate limiting.
A discussion took place regarding the implementation of full markdown support in chat for bots. joffreyjaffeuxcommitted changes to limit headings to messages from bots.
markschmucker inquired about the process of regenerating summaries, and Falco provided insights into the ai summary backfill maximum topics per hour site setting and the ai_api_audit_logs table.
hmmmnotsure reported an issue where the summarization feature was generating English summaries despite the discussion being in Spanish. Falco provided recommendations for alternative models that perform better with Spanish language.
Activity
Saifannounced the availability of the Discourse AI Summarize feature for hosted instances without the need for a third-party LLM provider.
Alessandra_Casalereported an issue with the âReject and delete the postâ button and requested a âHide postâ option for toxic posts. Falco acknowledged the report and promised to investigate.
markschmuckerreported an issue with the âMondaysâ dialogue appearing in summaries after switching to the Claude Haiku 3.5 model. Falco and sam assisted in investigating the issue.
markschmuckerinquired about the process of regenerating summaries, and Falco provided insights into the ai summary backfill maximum topics per hour site setting and the ai_api_audit_logs table.
hmmmnotsurereported an issue where the summarization feature was generating English summaries despite the discussion being in Spanish, and Falcoprovided recommendations for alternative models that perform better with Spanish language.
This week on the Discourse meta forum, discussions centered around various aspects of the AI features, including potential future enhancements, bug reports, and cost considerations. The community explored topics such as enabling PDF support for the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) feature, improving the presentation of AI-generated titles, and estimating the costs associated with using Large Language Models (LLMs) for different AI capabilities.
Users expressed interest in adding PDF support to the RAG feature, as it would greatly benefit communities that frequently work with PDF documents. MachineScholar highlighted the time-intensive process of reformatting PDFs into text files for RAG, and Saif confirmed that PDF support is on the roadmap after the team completes work on Embeddings.
Scrolling Longer Topics on Mobile Doesnât Show Related Topics at the Bottom (ref)
NateDhaliwal discovered there was an issue where the âRelated Topicsâ section was not appearing at the bottom of longer topics when viewed on mobile devices. Moin and Lilly confirmed the issue, and sam acknowledged the bug and assigned a medium priority to resolve it within the next four weeks.
Jagster reported an issue where the AI Helper was displaying an unexpected JSON-like output when generating translations. Moin confirmed the issue, but it appeared to be resolved within a few days, as reported by Jagster and sam.
Why Is the âMondaysâ Dialogue Showing Up in My Summaries? (ref)
markschmucker encountered an issue where the AI Summarize feature was including irrelevant dialogue in the summaries. sam provided a message ID for markschmucker to report the issue to Anthropic, the LLM provider.
This discussion explored the factors that influence usersâ decisions to visit specific topics on the forum. Saif highlighted the potential for AI summaries to provide context for poorly titled topics, while schneeland expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of AI summaries for this purpose but acknowledged the potential for improvement with better LLMs and prompt tweaking.
Related Topics Missing After Rereading a Topic with More Than 20 Posts (ref)
This long-standing bug caused the âRelated Topicsâ section to disappear when revisiting topics with more than 20 posts, provided the user had no unread or new topics. sam identified the root cause and acknowledged the issue, while Moin provided additional details on the repro steps.
Saif shared a guide on enabling and configuring automatic AI-powered captions for uploaded images, which is part of the Helper feature in the Discourse AI plugin. NateDhaliwal inquired about the costs associated with this feature, and Falco provided estimates based on different LLM providers.
Estimating Costs of Using LLMs for Discourse AI (ref)
In this topic, Falco shared cost estimates for using different LLM providers for image captions on the meta forum, providing a reference point for users considering enabling this feature.
New Experiment: Enable AI Search with One Click! (ref)
Following the successful rollout of the one-click AI Summarize feature, Saif announced the availability of AI Search for Standard, Business, and Free tiers without the need for a third-party LLM provider. This experiment allows users to enable or disable AI Search from the âWhatâs Newâ section.
