3 hours ago
2
In its relatively short history as a social media platform, Bluesky has a pretty decent record for listening to its users. The site saw a surge in popularity after the 2024 election, following what many saw as Twitter's collapse after it was purchased, renamed, and dramatically changed by Elon Musk. But its newest AI project isn't winning over many users.
Attie is a new AI assistant being built by Bluesky that can create custom social media feeds. It's named after the infrastructure behind Bluesky and Attie, the AT Protocol. Attie will be a separate, optional app. It's currently in an invite-only closed beta.
Bluesky's CEO-turned-chief innovation officer, Jay Graber, is leading the company's Exploration team building Attie. In a personal blog post published on March 28, she describes Attie as a kind of vibe-coding tool. She wrote, "[Attie] feels more like having a conversation than configuring software. You describe the sort of posts you want to see, and the coding agent builds the feed you described."
The Attie website showcases how the AI could work.
AttieIt seems like Attie is aiming to build a more comprehensive timeline than you could get simply by searching for topics. You can do more detailed searches with Attie, like "Poetry, long-form fiction craft, and writing process from people I follow," as one example on the Attie website reads. It shouldn't be creating new posts.
But many Bluesky users aren't happy with the introduction of AI on the platform. In an era when social media platforms are diving all in on AI, Bluesky's Attie signals that nobody is immune to the internet's AI makeover.
Attie AI backlash
Almost immediately after Attie was announced, posts started flowing in. Users raised concerns about their posts being shared in the AI-compiled feeds. Some Bluesky users are angry about the company's investment in advanced, agentic AI, even though Bluesky still lacks comparatively basic functions, such as the ability to edit posts, DM images and follow hashtags. Many users bemoaned Attie as Bluesky's version of AI slop, one that nobody seemingly asked for.
While Attie is a separate app, the AI agent does have a Bluesky-run account on the social media platform. TechCrunch reported Tuesday that Attie is one of the most-blocked Bluesky accounts, second only to Vice President JD Vance. Attie has reportedly been blocked by 125,000 Bluesky users, and Vance by 180,000.
Graber told CNET in an email that the company wants to assure users that it's listening to their feedback and that Attie doesn't represent a change to Bluesky, as it's a separate app.
"Attie is specifically designed against the kind of AI people are rightly frustrated with," Graber said. "The kind that the major platforms use AI to control what you see, maximize time-on-app, and harvest data for advertisers. Attie works for the user."
Graber said Attie won't be used to generate content.
Jay Graber/Screenshot by CNETGraber added in a post that Bluesky will "look into ways to take into account the preferences expressed by people who've blocked Attie."
It's rare to find a social media platform in 2026 that isn't experimenting with AI. Meta and Google have loaded up Facebook, Instagram and YouTube with their AI. Social media users are sharing content increasingly created and edited with AI tools. This low-quality AI-generated content, often called "slop," is nearly inescapable online. Many experts and advocates have raised concerns that AI slop will contribute to misinformation and exploitation.
We'll have to wait and see whether and how Attie changes during beta to fully understand what AI may be in Bluesky's future. For now, you can reduce the AI content you see in your Pinterest feed and Google apps.
