Category: Technology

SiteGround’s Icky Approach to AI in WordPress 7.0

So I have a few sites with SiteGround. They’re largely sites that don’t get a huge amount of traffic (with the exception of All Rumble Stats, which gets 20k a month). Hosting is a bit like your bank account or your broadband provider: they are there and as long as you don’t do much to annoy them, then you stick with them. Friction of moving is painful, so you want to avoid it. Nevertheless, they were a pretty good host a while back that didn’t seem to do anything egregious compared to other hosts, plus I’ve been to their EU offices, so I have recommended them in the past.

There have been a few things that have occurred in the past few years that is has me questioning continuing hosting with them. One was their speed optimiser plugin (which I think were great) deleted all WebP images, even those that the plugin didn’t create, and their support which is an AI Slopstacle Course at the moment.

Last week though I think means I’ll be moving off their servers when I renew.

WordPress 7.0 and the AI Connector Module

WordPress 7.0 came out recently, and as part of that introduced the AI Connector module, which whilst does nothing off the bat, allows you to store your chosen planet boiler key of choice within WordPress, allowing other plugins to use it for their means. It means you don’t have to add your API key to all plugins, instead just doing it once within the WordPress backend. Convenient.

I’m not a huge fan of it for a number of reasons. Firstly, as raised by Oliver Sild over on Twitter (sorry) every WordPress site could have an API key embedded in it, allowing hackers access to API tokens to do nefarious things. It feels like at the very least there’s a massive target on every that is built on WordPress’ back.

SiteGround crystalised the other reason. In that hosts will set this feature up for you, even if you don’t want them to.

I got an email a few weeks back. I’ve copied it verbatim below:-

Hi Rhys,

One of the most significant WordPress releases in years is coming, anticipated on May 20, 2026. This new version will provide a standardized way to connect your WordPress site to AI providers providers (learn more), making it possible to integrate a whole new range of AI capabilities for managing and editing your website. Once it rolls out we’ll update your WordPress site automatically. On top of that, we’ll connect it with SiteGround AI Studio so that you can start using AI capabilities right out of the box.

Sites to be automatically updated to WordPress 7.0

As always, we’ll automatically update all WordPress installations on our platform to 7.0 based on your WordPress autoupdate settings. By default, we apply major updates with 24 hour’s notice, so no action is needed on your end. The update itself is just the beginning. We’ve also taken several steps to make sure that you can take advantage of the new AI capabilities without any additional configuration.

AI Studio with 20,000 free tokens to be enabled as your default AI connector

When WordPress 7.0 lands, the standard process to start using AI capabilities will involve a few steps. First, connecting an AI provider of choice by installing a connector and providing an API key. Second, then installing the native WordPress AI plugin so AI capabilities appear in the WordPress core.

SiteGround customers, however, skip all of that entirely. With the new WordPress version, you’ll get SiteGround AI Studio activated as your default AI connector, plus our powerful AI WordPress Agent enabled automatically. This allows you to immediately use AI power for managing your WordPress. No API keys, manual connections, or extra plugins needed. You’re ready to use AI-powered features right away, backed by 20,000 free tokens available to you every month through AI Studio.

Powerful AI Agent for WordPress management to be activated

As part of the WordPress 7.0 update, SiteGround’s AI Agent will appear directly in your WordPress admin ready to help with all sorts of tasks. The moment WordPress 7.0 is live on your site, you’ll have our robust AI chat assistant available directly from your admin dashboard.

SiteGround’s AI Agent capabilities go far beyond the standard image and text generation many other AI plugins provide. It can handle real maintenance tasks: updating site settings and plugins, setting product discounts, editing descriptions, auditing and applying SEO changes, and more, all from a single prompt.

EXPLORE AI AGENT →

Note: Please note that the custom AI Studio connection and the AI Agent activation will not be done as part of the WordPress update for those websites that have a white-label client added to them. If you want, you can activate SiteGround AI agent yourself on such sites.

Also good to know: You can also change your default AI connector or completely disable the AI Studio connector any time you want.

Cheers to the exciting new WordPress version,
The SiteGround Team

I didn’t think much of it, but given it was sent midday on a Friday, I kind of skim read it and ignored it. Sure enough though after WordPress 7.0 launched on the 20th, with sites hosted on SiteGround, this appeared.

Notice it’s location right at the bottom. Often plugins are guilty of fighting for the real estate at the top of the page. This? Already activated and hidden away. In a vain hope you don’t notice it.

Not only it’s activated, but it’s connected to their AI agent.

I’m an experienced user, and kind of go blind to the banners and things that appear in the back end of WordPress, but I wonder how quick I would burn through the 20,000 tokens every month? Would that change? Is this just an approach to get SiteGround users hooked onto an AI chatbot and then reduce the level of service? How much does it cost per month if you go over the 20,000 tokens?

It’s pumped their numbers which looks good for their board. SiteGround AI Studio plugin has over 1+ million active installations when it’s launched late last month, and the graph of the installs look ridiculous. For a plugin to have over a million active installations within a month is unheard of. To put it in perspective – Preload LCP Image has been available for 3 years and has 4000+ active installations. But it has pissed a lot of people off. The reviews are not good. There is damage control in effect, as on most reviews, a poor SiteGround rep is replying, touting the wonders of this plugin and very unpointed speak on taking feedback on board.

I’m not the product here

Thing is, this is not a free service. I pay over £500 every year to SiteGround to host my websites, and many of my clients pay as well. Things like this should be an opt-in service. If this was a free service, I’d grin and bare it – after all you are the product. But it’s not. In short, SiteGround has left and icky taste in a lot of folks mouths. Not everybody will leave, but many might.

But then, this is the modus operandi for the great AI rollout. Switch it on and hope people don’t notice or kick up a fuss. Enough people don’t mind it and a few people use it. Big numbers, 1+ million adoption, board is happy. It just feels icky and deceptive. I do wonder if AI adoption would be bigger overall if it wasn’t forced down our throats, and the benefits to society would be welcomed if they were argued or shown.

But then again, if AI operators have to go down this approach, is there any benefits to be had at all?

Thoughts on “The amazing mail sent to a video game publisher”

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This article did the rounds on my socials and on Bubbles, on how the publisher Panic receives mail by asking for it at the end of their games.

It’s something I was aware of, I finished one of their games (Thank Goodness You’re Here!) and sent them a postcard – I think it was a picture of the high street of the town I live in. So there’s every chance my mail is in the photo in that article.

It’s nothing too high tech, but when you finish you’re encouraged to visit a link mentioned in the credits. In it, it explains to send the developers a note, and if you put a self address envelope back in it, you could receive something back. No guarantees though. It was simple, and I think there was a bit of friction (it wasn’t just emailing them) and a bit of vulnerability (you were sharing your address with them), meant I wanted to do it.

I did message them, and I did get something back. I got this patch.

The article talks about how Activision in the 1980s inspired them, and it wasn’t just them. I have in my collection an “Elite” pin badge you got when you emailed the publishers of the BBC Micro game with a word that appears in the ending.

Sending snail mail related to computer software was rife in the shareware days (the amount of home addresses that appear in magazines and printed in software is ridiculous), but it’s effectively dead now. Which is sad. I did when I was more active on Twitch send my regulars Christmas cards, and I did send Dan Q a postcard as part of his “Postcards from the Internet” series when he asked for them. I’d like to think it gave a bit of joy in folks lives.

I am not going to lie, I’m thinking of adding something similar to my next game.

It’d be nice.

Featured in “Cloudflare made a WordPress for AI agents” on The Verge

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So this is interesting, I was on The Verge last week, as part of the wider discussion on EmDash, I posted a blog post on my thoughts on EmDash, which was cited a bit. I should add – there’s some paywalling on The Verge, so if you can’t see it, sorry.

I remember when the story broke on April Fools Day (seriously), and by the morning of the second I saw a lot of takes on LinkedIn that – considering it was my mum’s milestone birthday – were a bit depressing. I took a step away, wrote something the Monday after, publishing on the Tuesday, with very little social media output, lead to actual decent traction, without the walled garden on LinkedIn (I’m this close to sodding it off now). A few days later I was contacted by the writer with a few more questions and clarifications, and boom, mainstream media coverage.

Moral of the story? Write the best stuff on your own blog, folks. WordPress can always help with that 😉.

Your crap is more memorable than your slop

Why you shouldn’t use AI to generate your poster.

Over the Easter weekend I was taking a stroll down the Rhos-on-Sea promenade, and noticed the following community noticeboard promoting local events. I stopped, took a photo, and went on my merry way.

Of the posters, I can confidently say that there is a Betws-Y-Coed antique and vintage fair held regularly thoroughout the year (which is the top left hand poster) and a Llandudno transport festival (whch is the bottom centre poster).

The rest? not a scoobies off the top of my head.

Sure, do I remember the dates of these events? No. But I remember from the time it took me to take the photos those events exist. If I was interested in either event, or know somebody who would, I could find out details and plan from there.

People use AI to scaffold websites, do art, or write blog posts. These feel like they fill a gap, rather than serve a purpose – a checkbox on a task list that needs to be filled.

However, in today’s attention based economy, why would you want your stuff to look the same? Janky websites with unique designs are more fun than every AI generated site out there, and whilst your kids art isn’t Rembrandt, you still hang it on the fridge, don’t you?

It’s been nice seeing other talented folk raise this, and the backlash has begun. I’ve even begun to switch off reading some prolific bloggers that use AI for the feature images. Even if they wrote every word, I think the images show a lack of creativity. So if you can’t guarantee that the featured image is slop, why should I trust your text?

So open up VS Code, or Canva and build that bloody poster, logo, or website. It may not be as polished as what ChatGPT can do, but you can maybe stick around in another person’s head longer than any slop can.

Bubbles

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Bubbles appeared in my analytics today and it could be a fun little project.

It seems to be a version of Hacker News for personal and those sites that are non commercial. In short, it curates a bunch of feeds from a bunch of sources (see them here) and then people can upvote on the posts they like, and over time the ones that aren’t liked are eventually hidden. It feels like a natural way to read a bunch of blogs dead quick. William Parker hit the nail on the head – “Anyone who’s ever tried to “do RSS right” knows the trap: You either miss everything or you drown in it. Bubbles sidesteps that completely.”.

The theory is that “the good stuff bubbles to the top”. At least that’s the plan. And I like it. So consider this blog post a way to support this project. Ben (the developer) want folks to keep using it, and I hope to keep doing so.

Top work!