In this episode, Birgit Pauli-Haack welcomes Beth Soderberg to discuss key updates in WordPress 7.0 and Gutenberg 22.8. They kick off with small talk about shifting seasons in Munich and Virginia before diving into the new content guidelines in Gutenberg 22.7, focused on standardizing editorial voice across AI and human content contributors. Both speakers express healthy skepticism about AI-generated content, stressing that while AI assists with research and “grunt work” like alt text or excerpts, the core value in writing remains human expertise and review. They caution about automation pitfalls and emphasize validating all AI outputs.
The discussion shifts to the new WordPress AI connectors, which let users connect to services like OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic Claude, and others—including local providers such as Olama and European alternatives like Mistral. Birgit Pauli-Haack explains the evolving infrastructure allowing developers to add and switch connectors with ease, and encourages the community to experiment and test.
A central topic is the release of WordPress 7.0, with a highlight on the increased minimum PHP requirement to 7.4, likely to disrupt agencies with older sites. The admin’s new look-and-feel is poised to confuse some clients, demanding extra support from agencies. Beth Soderberg also celebrates practical improvements: cover block video embeds using external sources, block visibility by screen size, pattern overrides, breadcrumbs block, and streamlined font management. Both speakers note the importance of hidden, friction-reducing features and the advancement of developer-facing infrastructure. The episode closes with a preview of ongoing enhancements in Gutenberg 22.8 and beyond.
- Editor: Sandy Reed
- Logo: Mark Uraine
- Production: Birgit Pauli-Haack
Show Notes
Special Guest: Beth Soderberg
- Bethink Studio
- WordPress.org Profile + Slack
- Talks by Beth Soderberg
AI in WordPress
- Guidelines Lands in Gutenberg 22.7
- Call for Testing: Community AI Connector Plugins
- AI Provider for OpenRouter
- AI Provider for Ollama
- AI Provider for Mistral
- AI Experiements plugin
WordPress Core and Gutenberg
Dev Notes
- Pattern Overrides in WP 7.0
- Pattern Editing in WordPress 7.0
- Block Visibility in WordPress 7.0
- Dimensions Support Enhancements in WordPress 7.0
- Custom CSS for Individual Block Instances
- New Block Support: Text Indent (textIndent)
- Introducing the Connectors API in WordPress 7.0
- Introducing the AI Client in WordPress 7.0
- Client-Side Abilities API in WordPress 7.0
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Transcript
The transcript is in the works.