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In its early days, Twitter alternative Bluesky tried to paint itself as a safe haven from the onslaught of AI, promising in November 2024 that it had “no intention” of scraping user-generated posts to train AI models.
It was a shot across the bow, clearly aimed at its rival X-formerly-Twitter, which had recently changed its terms of service to allow just that. And since then, backlash to AI slop and relentless AI integrations has grown to new heights.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Bluesky’s abrupt foray into AI isn’t sitting well with its notoriously anti-AI user base.
Specifically, the company’s chief innovation officer Jay Graber, who stepped down as CEO earlier this month to focus on “exploring new ideas” at the company, announced a new AI app called Attie at a conference over the weekend.
Attie, which interim CEO Toni Schneider referred to as a “new product” that’s “not part of the Bluesky app” in an interview with TechCrunch, allows users to essentially vibe code their own custom feed using natural language prompts — or even build their own Bluesky app alternative on top of the service’s Atmosphere protocol, an ecosystem of interoperable social applications.
“You control it, you shape it, without having to write code or know how to set up these feeds,” Schneider enthused.
The CEO seemed well aware of the headwinds against launching consumer-facing AI products in 2026.
“It is an AI product, but it’s an AI product that’s very people-focused,” he told TechCrunch. “We think AI is a very powerful technology, but we want to make sure that we use it to build things that really benefit people.”
“We think AI should serve people, not platforms,” Graber told audiences at this weekend’s announcement. “An open protocol puts this power directly in users’ hands.”
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