I know that in some quarters of both the Bluesky and Fediverse side of the #OpenSocialWeb there is a justifiably allergic reaction to AI. I get it and share it. But I’m becoming more convinced than ever at this: if we in the open social web space don’t build our own healthy, safe and fair versions of #AgenticWeb interactions here, it will be defined and done for and to us.
The big platforms are already building agentic features: social enabled agents that read your feed, draft your replies, manage your presence. Those are shippping soon. Sooner than you think. And the open social web protocols are well, open by definition to these.
They’ll do it in ways that serve engagement metrics, not people. If the open social web cedes this ground, the definition of what “AI agent + social” means will be written by the same companies we built alternatives to escape.
We have something they don’t: open protocols, user-owned data, and communities that actually debate what’s acceptable. That’s exactly the right foundation for building agentic tools with consent, transparency, and human review at the center. The question isn’t whether agents are coming to social; it’s whether we shape them or they shape us.
That ends my Ted Talk.