Bluesky introduces AI assistant "Attie" for custom social feeds

Bluesky introduces “Attie,” an AI assistant that allows users to create their own social media feeds using natural language.

“You describe the sort of posts you want to see, and the coding agent builds the feed you described,” writes Head of Innovation Graber in a blog post. “Attie” is an experiment with agentic social applications, but also a standalone app and completely optional for Bluesky users.

To start, “Attie” can be used to create and view feeds. In the future, these are also to become available in Bluesky and other applications based on the AT Protocol. There is no concrete information yet on when and how “Attie” will be integrated. The plan goes beyond creating feeds: In the long term, users will be able to develop their own social apps with “Attie” using Vibe Coding and provide tools for others.

According to TechCrunch, the team has not yet decided whether “Attie” will be a paid service in the future. The app is currently in a closed beta. Graber presents “Attie” as a counter-proposal to the common AI strategies of large platforms: these primarily use AI to retain users longer, gain training data, and control content through systems that are difficult to understand. In contrast, “Attie” aims to focus more on user control, for example through self-created feeds and customizable software, Graber writes in the blog post.

New leadership, fresh capital, and focus on the ecosystem

Technically, the AI assistant is based on Anthropic's Claude model and uses the Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol) developed by Bluesky, an open, decentralized protocol for social networks where identities, content, and feeds are not tied to a single platform. The AI assistant was officially presented over the weekend at the Atmosphere conference, a developer event centered around the AT Protocol. Bluesky refers to the emerging ecosystem based on the protocol as “Atmosphere”.

“Attie” is the first product of the newly formed “Exploration Team” around Graber. Graber was previously CEO of Bluesky but stepped down this month to focus more on product development again and now holds the role of Chief Innovation Officer. Toni Schneider, formerly CEO of WordPress operator Automattic, has taken over operational management of the company.

At the same time, Bluesky announced it had completed a $100 million funding round. Schneider faces key challenges: Above all, Bluesky must find a way to monetize its network of over 40 million users and operate profitably in the long term. Discussions include subscriptions and hosting services for users who want to run their communities based on the protocol. For Schneider, the potential lies less in individual applications than in the AT Protocol itself: similar to WordPress, it is intended to serve as an open foundation for an ecosystem of independent, decentralized services that interact with each other.

(dahe)