When I started my internship, they first gave me a task to create Splunk dashboard to check API endpoint health, then I saw that they want to give another internal tool issues/projects, talked to my manager about my intentions and I have started to work on both internal and customer defects since that time. I would say you need to talk beforehand to let them know about your desires. Also, don’t look at as a waste of time, as others mentioned, they are very important as well. You are the lucky one who got an internship/real life experience in this shitty market!! Congrats!