The decentralized social network Bluesky recently introduced a new artificial intelligence-based tool — the Attie assistant. However, the launch of this AI service has sparked significant backlash within the community and led to an unprecedented number of account blocks.
This is reported by Finway
Attie: Functionality and Block Record
Attie offers users the ability to create personalized feeds and individual algorithms within the AT Protocol ecosystem. To do this, users simply need to specify the type of content they want to see, after which the system autonomously generates the required algorithm. However, shortly after its launch, the Attie account became the second most blocked on Bluesky.
Open data indicates that over 142,000 users have blocked the Attie account, while its follower count barely exceeds 1,500. Thus, the number of blocks is 83 times greater than the number of followers. The only account with a higher block rate is that of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, with over 180,000 blocks. Attie has also surpassed the official accounts of the White House and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in this regard.
Reasons for Criticism and Community Reaction
The new assistant was presented at the Atmosphere conference as a tool for personalizing the social experience without the need for programming. Bluesky emphasizes that the main goal of Attie is to return control of feeds to the users themselves. Specifically, the company states:
“We believe that AI should serve people, not platforms.”
However, many community members perceived the emergence of Attie as a violation of the platform’s core principles. Bluesky has positioned itself as a decentralized alternative to centralized social networks, and its appeal to 43 million users has largely been based on the absence of aggressive AI implementation.
Among the main reasons for dissatisfaction are:
- unwillingness to see AI tools in their feeds;
- concerns about the increase in low-quality AI content;
- criticism regarding product development priorities, particularly due to the lack of basic features.
The community expresses dissatisfaction not only with Attie specifically but also with the broader trend of integrating artificial intelligence into digital services. The company itself acknowledges the ambiguous impact of AI on social networks, emphasizing:
“Technology is neither good nor bad; it is not neutral.”
Bluesky was created as a decentralized alternative to Twitter (now X) with the involvement of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and has gradually expanded access for users. The launch of Attie, which was intended to be a step towards greater personalization, has now turned into a crisis of trust within the platform.