Bluesky's Newest Product: an AI Tool That Gives You Custom Feeds

"What happens when you can describe the social experience you want and have it built for you...?" asks Bluesky? "We've just started experimenting, but we're sharing it now because we want you to build alongside us."

Called "Attie" — because it's built with Bluesky's decentralized publishing framework, AT Protocol (which is open source) — the new assistant turns natural language prompts into social feeds, without users having to know how to code. (It's part of Bluesky's mission to "develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.")

Engadget reports: On the Attie website, examples include prompts like, "Show me electronic music and experimental sound from people in my network" or "Builders working on agent infrastructure and open protocol design."

"It feels more like having a conversation than configuring software," [writes Bluesky's former CEO/current chief innovation officer, Jay Graber, in a blog post]. "You describe the sort of posts you want to see, and the coding agent builds the feed you described."

Graber added that Attie is a separate app from Bluesky and users don't have to use the new AI assistant if they don't want to. However, since Attie and Bluesky were built on the same framework, it could mean there will be some cross-app implementation between the two or any other app built on the AT Protocol.
"Attie is open for beta signups today, and we'll be sharing what we learn along the way," Graber writes in the blog post. "To learn more about Attie, visit: Attie.AI. Come help us find out what this can be."

The blog post warns that "Right now, AI is undermining human agency at the same time it's enhancing it," since "The proliferation of low-quality AI-generated content is making public social networks noisier and less trustworthy..." And in a world where "signal is getting harder to find... The major platforms aren't trying to fix this problem." They're using AI to increase the time users spend on-platform, to harvest training data, and to shape what users see and believe through systems they can't inspect and didn't choose. We think AI should serve people, not platforms...

An open protocol puts this power directly in users' hands. You can use it to build your own feeds, create software that works the way you want it to, and find signal in the noise. We built the AT Protocol so anyone could build any app they imagine on top of it, but until recently "anyone" really meant "anyone who can code." Agentic coding tools change that. For the first time, an open protocol can be genuinely open to everyone...

The Atmosphere [Bluesky's interoperable ecosystem] is an open data layer with a clearly defined schema for applications, which makes it uniquely well-suited for coding agents to build on... Bluesky will continue to evolve as a social app millions of people rely on. Attie will be where we experiment with agentic social.

AI is an accelerant on whatever it's applied to. I want it to accelerate decentralizing social and putting power back in users' hands. But I don't think the most interesting things built on AT Protocol will come from us. They're going to come from everyone who picks up these tools and starts building.

Re: prediction

[kenh]

Bespoke Echo Chambers? That's their new feature? Removing even the remotest possibility of an opinion differing from your own, what a great idea! /sarcasm

Re:

[Himmy32]

Let's be honest the political echo chambers are basically at the top level service already, that ship has already sailed.

But the real power of what these filters are bring to the table which is targeted feeds on a topic. Want to keep up to date with the latest metagame in a trading card game, find the creators of strangest neon colored fantasy dildos, connect with nature photographers obsessed with macroscopic raindrops on tree leaves, find mechanics that work on late century steam and gas engines, or loca

Re:

[Morpeth]

I was thinking the same, carefully crafted echo chambers and intentional confirmation bias. The irony of the name 'social media' just keeps growing, as it continues to drive wedges between people instead of bringing them together -- or at a minimum, at least support a live and let live, 'agree to disagree' mentality. It's really a dystopian nightmare in the making.

Re:

[adfraggs]

I'd rather be the one who is in control of my echo chamber rather than leaving it up to the algorithms of facebook, reddit or others. They're aim is to keep us "engaged" at all costs. Social media is already a complete shithole. Not being exposed to dissenting opinions is low on my list of priorities when it comes to doing something about it. My top three are: being in control of your own feed, avoiding AI-generated content and having some way to weed out the bullshit.

Re:Custom feeds of garbage

[Himmy32]

Oddly enough, the feed and filter system being discussed also allows for an equally echo-y right wing experience, if you desire that. Their may be less right wing voices but they aren't absent and could be filtered for.

Re:

[NaCh0]

Oddly enough, the feed and filter system being discussed also allows for an equally echo-y right wing experience, if you desire that.

The algorithm might allow for it, but bluesky moderation won't.

Try saying there are 2 genders and that men shouldn't play in women's sports.

Re:Custom feeds of garbage

[Himmy32]

The moderation is also customizable. There's also community moderation and you could subscribe to your own moderation service.

As for the default moderation service which does skew left, the default setting on the "Intolerance" moderation category is "Warn". So even when moderated, those views aren't blocked and you can turn the settings on that category.

So again with a very few minor tweaks, you could use the service in the way you desire. Unless that conduct is rising to the level to that violates the Anti-Harassment Community Guideline.

Re:

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Try saying there are 2 genders and that men shouldn't play in women's sports.

Go to Twitter and try saying that gender is on a spectrum and women should have bodily autonomy.

Let us know how that works out.

How do I know what I want?

[fabiomb]

How do I know what I want all the time? I don't want to read the same feeds, the same things, the same news, or the same approach all the time. How am I supposed to describe to an LLM how I feel and what I want to see at a particular moment? The problem with these approaches is always the same: the creators of selection algorithms pretend that you know your preferences in advance, with no possibility of change, contradicting human nature and delivering boring, monotonous feeds.

Re:

[Himmy32]

It's not like this stops you from relying on the default feed or relying on what some other megacorp Machine Learning algorithm is pushing at you. Extra tools on an open protocol that empowers some extra choices in what to filter out seems fine, but since everything is already open you could rely on other feeds people have made (which was the selling point of BlueSky in the first place) or tie in your own filters or even make your own ML algorithm to generate you suggestions.

Re:

[laxr5rs]

That's the point. The point isn't to help you, it's to direct you into ad hell and profit hell.

Re:

[real_nickname]

I mainly use mastodon, there is no feed algorithm. Far better than having an algo maxing views with rage and click bait tailored to my brain. Following people when they interact in an interesting way with my existing network is enough for me to discover new things. Social networks algorithms are useless to me, not designed to enhance user experience.

Re:

[adfraggs]

You could say literally this to an AI and let it help you figure it out. This is a tool, not a hard set of rules that you have to craft and then never change. Curating your own data feed would be impossible without AI. So just try it out and see what happens. The alternative is an algorithm that's designed to keep you "engaged". It's nefarious as fuck. This at least can give you a chance to take back some control.

Hmm...

[ambrandt12]

didn't there used to be RSS feeds (never used them) that delivered news from where you subscribed?
Of course, there's also email subscriptions to specific newsletters.

Did anyone think that Bluesky or X or FB wouldn't be incredibly biased (like on here)?

Re:Hmm...

[Himmy32]

RSS feeds never went away, here's even the link to the Slashdot RSS feed [slashdot.org]. There's some RSS feed aggregators, but just like you pointed out with Slashdot the RSS sources aren't some sort of neutral panacea. Because no matter who is producing information will have a bias.

Bluesky is oddly better than most in that regard because the open protocol with the feed and filter system allows to pick feeds or create your own in order to have control over your own experience. And with that power comes the same power as other social media to live in the echo chamber of your choice. But in addition to that, there's also the ability to filter out the political echo chambers and just get a feed on a fandom, hobby, or obscure topic. Won't even have a CEO forcing their politics into your feed.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

>was in discussion about doing a Masonic Lodge documentary with a 17th degree Mason when it got hacked

So why were you in discussion with a Mason who never even completed the normal 32 degrees of the Scottish Rite? Normal masonry only has 3 degrees - Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. Your guy seems kind of sketchy. York Rite is in 3 separate bodies, too, and none of them have 17 degrees, either. Is this some strange European Masonry? Definitely NOT mainstream.

Build the feed you want

[Powercntrl]

Consume, consume, consume, yep, that's all you can do on modern social media - pointlessly shout into the void or read the insipid ramblings of people who are more rich/famous and/or more socially/politically connected than you. Because if you're just Joe Nobody, may the algorithm have mercy on your soul. Come back when you're wealthy or a public figure.

That's why I haven't bothered with BlueSky. If I wanted to circle jerk over famous people or shout into an empty void, I can still do that just fine over on the site formerly known as Twitter.

Unnecessary

[jrnvk]

Bluesky is already a monolith of a certain viewpoint, these tools cannot possibly change that experience any.

Third Party Tooling

[Himmy32]

The previous custom feed first party custom feed generator was a pain, but there's already third party tools that are already pretty easy to use without needing the AI buzzword. Skyfeed [skyfeed.app] and Bluesky Feed Creator [blueskyfeedcreator.com] are pretty nice.

soon - relevant suggestions from 8000000 partners!

[laxr5rs]

It's all marketing bs to get a few more coins.

Bluesky is already a collection of bubbles

[shm]

Bluesky is already a collection of bubbles, with their advanced filters and blocking mechanisms. It's impossible to have a conversation with any kind of opposing views over there.

So now you can automate your isolation into a LLM generated bubble?

Did I get this right?

What I would like to see is (paid) service which uses an LLM or whatever to generate a custom RSS feed from across the web, FB, X, Bluesky etc per a topic of my specification.

Blueski

[groobly]

Bluesky, rhymes with brewski, and equally valuable.