Bluesky’s AI assistant Attie expands into an open social research tool
TechCrunch Sarah Perez
Bluesky's AI tool Attie now lets you research trends and influencers across the whole AT Protocol network, not just Bluesky. Growth has slowed, so Bluesky's betting AI-powered search keeps people around.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Sarah Perez — read the original for the full story.
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Bluesky just handed its AI assistant a bigger job. Attie, the tool that launched in March to let users build custom feeds without touching code, is picking up a new feature called Quests. Instead of just tuning your algorithm, you can now ask Attie open-ended questions about what's happening across the Atmosphere — Bluesky's term for the whole constellation of apps built on the AT Protocol, not just the flagship app itself.
That means you could ask it to surface trending topics, or point you to the most influential accounts in a given field or region. It's less a feed-builder now and more a research assistant for a decentralized network that spans multiple apps and doesn't have one central algorithm deciding what you see.
The timing isn't random. Bluesky's growth has cooled noticeably — the platform doubled to 40 million users by last October, but eight months later it's sitting around 45.6 million. That's still growth, but nowhere near the pace that made headlines a year ago. Tools like Attie are part of the company's attempt to give people a reason to stick around, and eventually, a reason to pay.
Jay Graber, who stepped down as CEO in March and now serves as chief innovation officer, framed Attie as a weapon against misinformation rather than just a convenience feature. She argued that tools helping people understand the internet will beat out tools that just add to the noise, and said the goal is to lower the barrier to actually using the AT Protocol's underlying flexibility — something most casual users never touch. She also teased accessibility upgrades and a new logo as part of a broader Attie redesign still in progress.
For now, Quests is in beta and rolling out through a waitlist. Attie remains free, though Bluesky has floated charging for it eventually. That's a real tension for a company whose user base skews skeptical of AI on economic, political and environmental grounds. But Bluesky raised $100 million in a round that closed this year, and that cash buys room to experiment — with Attie, with a possible premium tier, and with whatever else keeps the AT Protocol ecosystem funded and growing.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Building an AI research tool for a userbase that largely distrusts AI is a strange bet, but not a crazy one — Bluesky needs something to reignite growth now that the viral spike has clearly faded. The bigger tell is the money: a hundred million in funding buys patience, and Bluesky is spending it on experiments like this rather than rushing to monetize immediately. Whether that patience pays off depends entirely on whether Quests actually feels useful, or just feels like AI bolted onto a network that never asked for it.
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