AI Blocks, WCASIA, continued tech cuts & more 📉

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support
Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe

It’s no secret that tools boasting Artificial Intelligence are popping up all over the place. That most certainly includes WordPress. And now Auttomattic’s WordPress.com is running an experiment to see how the technology might benefit users.

As reported by blogger JenT at WPcomMaven, the managed hosting service quietly added two AI-powered blocks to the Block Editor. The AI Image and AI Paragraph blocks are aimed at helping content creators.

As the name suggests, the AI Image block allows users to generate an image that can be inserted into a post. And the AI Paragraph block will “read” your post’s content and generate follow up text.

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg confirmed the new features on Twitter, but made no promises regarding how long they’ll stick around.

Meanwhile, Automattic engineer Artur Piszek published a brief post introducing the blocks and answering questions in the WordPress.com support forums. Based on the conversation, it looks as though this could be a commercial add-on in the future.

The technology is being branded as “Jetpack AI”, and was built in conjunction with OpenAI.

Links You Shouldn’t Miss

The first-ever WordCamp Asia is set to take place from February 17-19 in Bangkok, Thailand. If you’re not able to attend in person, you can still watch a live stream of the event. Recordings of each session will also be posted on WordPress.tv at a later date.

WordPress.org has kicked off a monthly feature called “What’s new for developers?” Written by Justin Tadlock, February’s post outlines several key changes that impact theme and plugin authors. You’ll also find links to the site’s latest educational materials. This resource looks like a win for the WordPress developer community.

Cost cutting measures have continued to hit the tech industry hard. Domain registrar and hosting giant GoDaddy is among the latest to announce staff cuts. In a February 8 letter to employees, CEO Aman Bhutani said the company would cut approximately 8% of its workforce. 

The devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have impacted millions - including members of the WordPress community. Developer Baris Ünver shared his story of survival on HeroPress and provided several ways to help those in need. The WP Minute would like to take this opportunity to share our support for everyone who has been affected.

From the Grab Bag

Now it’s time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.

• 
  WordPress 6.2 Beta 2 has been released. This version includes 292 enhancements and 354 bug fixes.
• According to security firm Sucuri, nearly 11,000 WordPress websites have been infected by malware that redirects users to scam sites. At last report, no specific vulnerability had been found.
• The team behind popular plugin iThemes Security have announced that they’re teaming up with security research firm Patchstack. The company will provide vulnerability details within the plugin’s site scan feature.
• Matt Cromwell has announced that new episodes of the WP Product Talk podcast will be starting up again this week. Katie Keith of Barn2 Plugins will join on as a co-host.
• What would WordPress’ 20th birthday celebration be without an appearance from Wapuu? A commemorative version of the virtual mascot is now available for download.
• The WordPress Design Team has released mockups for a planned redesign of the Block Pattern Library. It’s the latest in a series of design revamps for the site.
• Internet Explorer is dead again, sort of. An update to Windows 10 will finally disable access to the since-retired browser. But not so fast - a few versions of the OS will still keep the app around for the time being.

Video of the week

Subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/@wpminute

Join The WP Minute as we take you on a tour of the new AI-powered Image and Paragraph blocks at WordPress.com.

https://youtu.be/D9LYfjnHMdw

Thanks to all of the members who shared these links today: 

• Matt Cromwell
• Birgit Pauli-Haack