Editor’s Note: This article was amended on March 9, 2023 and March 13th, 2023 with answers and links to some frequently asked questions about settings, privacy and data.

Whether it’s generating a shiny new avatar or putting into words something you couldn’t quite figure out on your own, new experiences using generative artificial intelligence are popping up every day. 

However, “tons of people use AI on Discord” might not be news to you: more than 30 million people already use AI apps on Discord every month. Midjourney’s server is the biggest on Discord, with more than 13 million members bringing their imaginations to pixels. Overall, our users have created more than 1 billion unique images through AI apps on Discord. And this is just the start.

Almost 3 million Discord servers include an AI experience, ranging from generating gaming assets to groups writing novels with AI, to AI companions, AI companies and AI-based learning communities. More than 10 percent of new Discord users are joining specifically to access AI interest based communities on our platform. 

Why is Discord becoming the home for AI? Simple: on Discord you can enjoy AI with friends. Rather than just going solo with an app, you and your friends can see what sorts of exciting, wild and sometimes silly results come from prompts like “robo-hamster caught in cardboard box, renaissance painting.” (Sorry, Nelly.)

On Discord, you can use AI to supercharge your conversation with friends – you can brainstorm together, create together, make memes together. It’s both entertainment and utility, fun and informative. 

And as a developer myself, what’s really exciting is seeing how teams and communities use our platform as their sandbox and build AI services directly on Discord. Open source teams are prototyping new models with early community members in Discord servers, and AI fans are sharing their favorite large language model prompts with each other. For example, the creators of Stable Diffusion, the popular open-source image model, first met and collaborated in a Discord community. 

We work hard to ensure that everyone on Discord is able to do all of this in a safe, positive environment and are committed to protecting the privacy and data of our users. Our AI features use OpenAI technology, but OpenAI cannot use Discord user data to train its general models. Like other Discord products, these features can only store and use information as described in our Privacy Policy, and they do not record, store, or use any voice or video call content from users. Rest assured, if our policy ever changes, we will disclose that to our users in advance of any implementation.

Today, we’re sharing a few new things about AI on Discord:

• Three really cool AI experiences we’re launching as free public experiments in a limited number of servers: Clyde, AutoMod AI, and Conversation Summaries
• Two sneak previews of future AI explorations we’re excited about: Avatar Remix and a whiteboard with AI prototype
• News about a new Discord AI Incubator to help fund innovative AI startups
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Clyde

Let’s start with a big upgrade for everyone’s favorite helpful robot, Clyde. Throughout Discord, you may already see Clyde responding to slash commands or DMing you if you’ve made an error. 

And next week, Clyde is coming to (artificially intelligent) life, natively within Discord, using OpenAI technology. Clyde can now answer questions and have extended conversations with you and your friends. Just by typing @Clyde in a server, you can chat with Clyde in any channel. You can even have Clyde start a thread for a group of your friends to hang out. Clyde can recommend playlists, and access GIFs and emojis like any Discord user.

Clyde is designed to help friends hang out, with a privacy-first and optional-only approach. While our AI features use OpenAI technology, OpenAI cannot use Discord user data to train its general models. Like any other Discord feature, Clyde can only store and use information as described in our Privacy Policy, and Clyde can only access messages sent directly to it or sent in a thread it created. We also ensured that Clyde does not record, store or use any voice or video call data from users.

Clyde is learning interesting and fun new things every day, and we’re excited to continue testing and iterating so Clyde becomes a fundamental part of the Discord experience soon.
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AutoMod AI

Next up is AutoMod AI. Last year we introduced AutoMod to take some of the load off of manually moderating a server. To date, AutoMod has automatically blocked more than 45 million unwanted messages from servers before they even had a chance to be posted based on server rules.

Now we’re taking AutoMod to the next level, harnessing the power of large language models. Moderators can leverage Automod AI, which will use OpenAI technology to find and alert the moderator whenever server rules may have been broken. The AutoMod AI experiment begins in a limited number of servers today. Server admins can choose to enable this feature, and they can turn it off at any time. While AutoMod AI uses OpenAI technology, OpenAI cannot use Discord user data to train its general models. You can find more information about these options at our AutoMod Help Center page here.

Conversation Summaries

Instead of feeling out of the loop after taking some time away IRL, AI-generated Conversation Summaries can bundle streams of messages into topics so you can quickly catch up or join in on what matters most to you. This feature can be enabled in Server Settings and we’ll be experimenting with Conversation Summaries in a limited number of servers starting next week. While Conversation Summaries uses OpenAI technology, OpenAI cannot use Discord user data to train its general models. You can find more information about these options at our Conversation Summaries Help Center page here.

We hope you’re getting the picture that AI is a technology we’re truly excited about. In addition to these experiments, we are hard at work imagining other creative ways AI can come to life on Discord. Here are a couple more things we’re exploring that you may see on Discord one day. 
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Avatar Remix

One of the most exciting aspects of building with AI on Discord is how quickly developers can build inherently social AI experiences on the platform. To showcase this, we’re excited to open source Avatar Remix, an app that lets friends remix each others’ avatars using the power of generative image models. 

Starting today, developers can find the Avatar Remix code on Github, and are free (under the open source license) to fork, remix and extend it in entirely new ways using their favorite models. Remember to follow our Developer Terms of Service and Developer Policy if you use the code to build or operate any apps on Discord. You can also take a look at the bot Replicate developed within their community using the open source code.
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Whiteboard with AI Preview

We know a lot of you have been asking for a shared whiteboard on Discord for a long time (like a really long time). Well, soon it could be here!  We’re exploring a shared visual space to collaborate with friends and colleagues that includes an AI-powered text-to-image generator you can iterate and experiment with together.

But wait, there’s more!
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Discord AI Incubator

Last fall we announced the creation of our first ecosystem fund and a $5 million commitment to funding strategic partners, developers and early stage start-ups to bring their creativity to Discord. Today as part of that fund, we are launching an AI incubator and dedicating resources to developers that want to build AI on Discord.

We encourage developers to check out discord.com/build to learn more about our Ecosystem Fund and submit some information if you’d like to be considered for a grant from the fund. 

In addition to cash grants to support development, participants will also be eligible for access to: 

• Office hours with Discord development teams
• Cloud compute credits for building and prototyping your services
• Early access to Discord platform features

We’re excited about the opportunities for AI to enhance so many facets of human experience, and we can’t wait to see what teams around the world come up with over the years to come!
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