Drupal AI Module Beta 1: A Milestone in Drupal's AI Journey

We are thrilled to announce the Beta 1 release of the Drupal AI module, marking a significant step forward in bringing robust, enterprise-ready AI capabilities to the Drupal ecosystem. This release represents months of collaborative effort from the Drupal community and represents a stable foundation for AI integration in Drupal sites.

This comes hot off the announcement at DrupalCon Barcelona that the AI module and its AI Agents will be included in the upcoming new version of Drupal, Drupal CMS. Headed for a release candidate in December.

What's New in Beta 1

The Beta 1 release focuses on stability and usability, with several key improvements:

• Enhanced Stability: The core functionality has been tested and stabilized over a number of alphas and so we believe the core is stable.
• Update Script Support: Proper update paths are now in place for future versions and the most recent alphas.
• Experimental Module Integration: AI Search and Automators are being labelled experimental to enable the release of AI into beta with a plan to move out of experiment
• AI Search Improvements:
  • Added Pinecone support alongside Milvus for vector database storage
  • Simplified UI with improved explanations
  • New mechanisms for combining vector and traditional search
  • Integration with traditional Drupal views
  • Integration with Search API Database and Search API SOLR

Removal of AI Providers from Core

The largest change is the removal of all AI and Vector database providers from core. This will make it more manageable and allow organizations and Starshot to choose which specific providers they would like to include alongside the AI module. We have an update script to change from the sub-modules to the new external providers.

Alongside this we will create a new AI Ecosystem Recipe. This will include all the providers and sub-modules made by us or contributed by others all in one place allowing you to install something to evaluate how you’d like to approach AI. However, as it is a recipe you will be able to fully uninstall all the providers you don’t want to use.

Key Features in the AI Ecosystem

• Image Classification Operations: Enhanced capabilities for AI-powered image analysis, including 
• Improved Provider Support: Better handling for services offering multiple AI models
• Automators everywhere: Automators are now powering the alt text generation module and the CK Assistants giving you more flexibility to change the underlying prompts behind these modules and making it easier to create your own.
• AI Agents: New framework for creating AI-powered agents that have a greater deal of autonomy and can even make changes to the configuration of your site. Featured in the recent DriesNote at Drupalcon Barcelona.

Try It Yourself

Ready to explore these new capabilities? You have several options:

• Visit the AI module page
• Check out the AI agents module
• Check out our new AI Ecosystem module.
• Test the features directly in the DrupalCMS testing environment
• Watch the AI Agents in the DrupalCon Barcelona DriesNote.
• Watch the Drupal CMS AI Track update.
• Watch our Beta release video

Community Contributions

This release would not have been possible without the incredible support of our community and corporate partners:

Corporate Partners

• Acquia: Leadership and strategic direction, especially Dries for championing AI module’s inclusion in Drupal CMS, the funding of the creation of AI Agents on the AI module and Deanna Ballew for her strategic vision of the impact of GenAI on Martech.
• AWS and Tarus Balog: AWS Bedrock Provider Module implementation
• FreelyGive: Time, funding, and project leadership, especially Jamie Abrahams for leadership and Marcus Johansson for conducting the bulk of the development. 
• Velir: OpenAI integration and CKE improvements, especially Kevin Quillen
• Soapbox: AI Search submodule development including the new boost with AI feature, especially Scott Euser
• Noble Services Scotland: Michal Gow for his initial work on the AI Search sub-mobile and LLM provider module that formed the basis of AI core.
• DXPR and Jurriaan Roelofs: Alt text image generation module
• Open Social: Working with us on their Gaia AI platform.
• Aalto University: Microsoft Azure Provider Module development
• Calibrate: AI translation and validation improvements, especially Frederick Wouters
• Pronovix: Funding and organizational support including the upcoming Google Vertex integration.
• QED42: First OpenCollective contributors

Individual Contributors

Special thanks to our key contributors:

• Jukka Huhta: Operation type and Deep integration
• Giorgi Jibladze: Gemini Provider
• Vivek Panicker: Pinecone and AI Search improvements
• Valery Lourie: Translation and bug fixing
• Stathis Papadopoulos: AI Content improvements

Bug Fixes and Improvements

Thanks to our dedicated bug fixers:

• Artem Dmitriiev
• Peter Philipp
• Alberto Cocchiara
• codebymikey
• Fabricio Rocha

Looking Forward

This Beta release is just the beginning. We're continuing to work on exciting features like improved chatbot capabilities and additional AI integrations. We invite the community to test, provide feedback, and contribute to the future of AI in Drupal.

Get Involved

Want to contribute or learn more? Visit our OpenCollective page or join the discussion on Drupal.org.