Bluesky is considering a proposal that allows users to control how their data is utilized for generative AI, according to CEO Jay Graber, who announced the initiative during the SXSW conference in Austin on March 10, 2025.
Bluesky takes steps to empower users over AI data use
Graber stated that Bluesky has been developing a framework aimed at gaining user consent regarding data usage for AI applications. This comes after the discovery last year that a dataset built from one million Bluesky posts was used to train AI systems, as reported by 404 Media.
In contrast, Bluesky’s competitor X has been incorporating user posts into its sister company xAI to assist in training its AI chatbot Grok. Last fall, X revised its privacy policy to permit third parties to train their AI on X posts. This decision coincided with the U.S. elections and an elevation of X owner Elon Musk’s profile within the Trump administration, which contributed to a significant migration of users from X to Bluesky.
You can stop Grok AI using your tweets to train itself
As a result, Bluesky has seen its user base grow to over 32 million in just two years. Despite the increasing demand for AI training data, Bluesky does not intend to utilize user posts for training its AI systems.
During her presentation at SXSW, Graber emphasized that Bluesky values user choice, stating that users would have the opportunity to specify how their content is used. She compared the proposed framework to the robots.txt file that allows websites to indicate whether search engines can scrape their content. Graber acknowledged that while search engines can technically still access open websites, a widely accepted framework is necessary to ensure compliance from companies and regulators.
The proposal, which is available on GitHub, seeks to obtain user consent at both the account and post levels, requesting other companies to honor these preferences. Graber noted the collaborative efforts with others in the industry to address concerns about AI and data usage. She asserted that the initiative represents a positive direction for user data management.
Featured image credit: Bluesky
