Overview
We strive to bring Artificial Intelligence features to Nextcloud. This section highlights these features, how they work and where to find them. All of these features are completely optional. If you want to have them on your server, you need install them via separate Nextcloud Apps.
Overview of AI features
Nextcloud uses modularity to separate raw AI functionality from the Graphical User interfaces and apps that make use of said functionality. Each instance can thus make use of various backends that provide the functionality for the same frontends and the same functionality can be implemented by multiple apps using on-premises processing or third-party AI service providers.
Feature |
App |
Rating |
Open source |
Freely available model |
Freely available training data |
Privacy: Keeps data on premises |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Smart inbox |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Image object recognition |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Image face recognition |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Video action recognition |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Audio music genre recognition |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Suspicious login detection |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Related resources |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Recommended files |
recommended_files |
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Text processing using LLMs |
Green |
Yes |
Yes - Llama 3.1 model by Meta |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Red |
No |
No |
No |
No |
||
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes - e.g. Llama models by Meta |
No |
Yes |
||
Machine translation |
Green |
Yes |
Yes - MADLAD models by Google |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Red |
No |
No |
No |
No |
||
Red |
No |
No |
No |
No |
||
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
||
Speech to Text |
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes - Whisper models by OpenAI |
No |
Yes |
|
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes - Whisper models by OpenAI |
No |
No |
||
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes - Whisper models by OpenAI |
No |
No |
||
Image generation |
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes - StableDiffusion XL model by StabilityAI |
No |
Yes |
|
Red |
No |
No |
No |
No |
||
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes - StableDiffusion models by StabilityAI |
No |
Yes |
||
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes - StableDiffusion models by StabilityAI |
No |
No |
||
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
||
Red |
No |
No |
No |
No |
||
Green |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
||
Context Chat |
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
|
Yellow |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Ethical AI Rating
Until Hub 3, we succeeded in offering features without relying on proprietary blobs or third party services. Yet, while there is a large community developing ethical, safe and privacy-respecting technologies, there are many other relevant technologies users might want to use. We want to provide users with these cutting-edge technologies – but also be transparent. For some use cases, ChatGPT might be a reasonable solution, while for more private, professional or sensitive data, it is paramount to have a local, on-prem, open solution. To differentiate these, we developed an Ethical AI Rating.
- The rating has four levels:
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
- It is based on points from these factors:
Is the software (both for inferencing and training) under a free and open source license?
Is the trained model freely available for self-hosting?
Is the training data available and free to use?
If all of these points are met, we give a Green label. If none are met, it is Red. If 1 condition is met, it is Orange and if 2 conditions are met, Yellow.
Features used by other apps
Some of our AI features are realized as generic APIs that any app can use and any app can provide an implementation for by registering a provider. So far, these are Machine translation, Speech-To-Text, Image generation, Text processing and Context Chat.
Text processing
As you can see in the table above we have multiple apps offering text processing using Large language models. In downstream apps like Context Chat and assistant, users can use the text processing functionality regardless of which app implements it behind the scenes.
Frontend apps
Text for offering an inline graphical UI for the various tasks
Assistant for offering a graphical UI for the various tasks and a smart picker
Mail for summarizing mail threads (see the Nextcloud Mail docs for how to enable this)
Summary Bot for summarizing chat histories in Talk
Backend apps
llm2 - Runs open source AI LLM models on your own server hardware (Customer support available upon request)
OpenAI and LocalAI integration (via OpenAI API) - Integrates with the OpenAI API to provide AI functionality from OpenAI servers (Customer support available upon request; see AI as a Service)
Machine translation
As you can see in the table above we have multiple apps offering machine translation capabilities. Each app brings its own set of supported languages. In downstream apps like the Text app, users can use the translation functionality regardless of which app implements it behind the scenes.
Frontend apps
Backend apps
translate2 (ExApp) - Runs open source AI translation models locally on your own server hardware (Customer support available upon request)
integration_deepl - Integrates with the deepl API to provide translation functionality from Deepl.com servers (Only community supported)
Speech-To-Text
As you can see in the table above we have multiple apps offering Speech-To-Text capabilities. In downstream apps like the Talk app, users can use the transcription functionality regardless of which app implements it behind the scenes.
Frontend apps
Assistant offering a graphical translation UI and a smart picker
Talk for transcribing calls (see Nextcloud Talk docs for how to enable this)
Backend apps
stt_whisper2 - Runs open source AI Speech-To-Text models on your own server hardware (Customer support available upon request)
OpenAI and LocalAI integration (via OpenAI API) - Integrates with the OpenAI API to provide AI functionality from OpenAI servers (Customer support available upon request; see AI as a Service)
Image generation
As you can see in the table above we have multiple apps offering Image generation capabilities. In downstream apps like the Text-to-Image helper app, users can use the image generation functionality regardless of which app implements it behind the scenes.
Frontend apps
Assistant for offering a graphical UI and a smart picker
Backend apps
text2image_stablediffusion (Customer support available upon request)
OpenAI and LocalAI integration (via OpenAI API) - Integrates with the OpenAI API to provide AI functionality from OpenAI servers (Customer support available upon request; see AI as a Service)
integration_replicate - Integrates with the replicate API to provide AI functionality from replicate servers (see AI as a Service)
Context Chat
Our Context Chat feature was introduced in Nextcloud Hub 7 (v28). It allows asking questions to the assistant related to your documents in Nextcloud. You will need to install both the context_chat app as well as the context_chat_backend External App. Be prepared that things might break or be a little rough around the edges. We look forward to your feedback!
Frontend apps
Assistant for offering a graphical UI for the context chat tasks
Backend apps
context_chat + context_chat_backend - (Customer support available upon request)
Provider apps
Apps can integrate their content with Context Chat to make it available for querying using Context Chat. The following apps have implemented this integration so far:
files
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my prompt slow?
Reasons for slow performance from a user perspective can be
Using CPU processing instead of GPU (sometimes this limit is imposed by the used app)
High user demand for the feature: User prompts and AI tasks are usually processed in the order they are received, which can cause delays when a lot of users access these features at the same time.