Blacksky Algorithms’ Policy Towards Agentic Coding

Featured Image: Funky Androids (series) by Nettrice R. Gaskins.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from a niche computer science field to a public spectacle we’re all forced to reckon with. It is not one clearly defined thing, but rather is a set of underlying technologies that can be used for many different purposes – to target schools for military operations, scan X-rays to find cancer, create deepfake porn, or to allow a single developer to create a suite of tools to resist ICE. It may use large language models that run in data centers sequestering energy and water resources all the while polluting the air. It may also use statistical methods from the 1980’s and prior that predate the invention of large language models and can run on a phone. It is a term that encompasses many different methods, scales, and use-cases (e.g. is it being used for or against surveillance) – the term “AI” matters less than who is using it, how they’re using it, and what they’re using it for. As a result, we want to be specific when we talk about how Blacksky uses AI. 

Blacksky currently uses large language models and “agentic coding” tools (primarily Claude Code) in developing its software. While we resist the usage of AI in other, primarily creative, domains where deep human involvement in every stage of the process is fundamental to the end product, software development is a field where AI has been transformative. Used cautiously and conscientiously, it enables experienced software developers to create software without requiring anywhere near the resources they needed before. This is not the case with other fields. It is, however, with software development. Nearly the entire industry has shifted over to using agentic coding to accompany software development, and it is widely accepted sentiment among developers that this represents the future of their work. Any software that you use now has likely been developed with some level of agentic coding. None of this is to say that these tools do not come with other ethical issues.

Companies have used this increased productivity as an excuse to lay off workers – it is also the reason that Rudy, by himself, was able to deploy the appview for Blacksky that enabled us to un-ban Link. This, unfortunately, would have been impossible to do alone without agentic coding tools like Claude Code. The appview is a huge piece of infrastructure that traditionally would require a far larger team to manage – the other team that runs a full AppView is Bluesky, a 40-person, $100 million VC-backed company (that still uses AI coding tools). Without these tools, it is also unlikely that we will be able to effectively create Blacksky-only posts, employ the hybrid-moderation model the community has come to a consensus on, and stay legally compliant for instances of potential CSAM. 

Those who support the company (through OpenCollective, Stripe, or by contributing code) make the mission possible. The contributions make running the infrastructure possible – they do not pay the salaries of the 5 people who contribute to this project full-time and our goal is to be able to do this in 2026. To do that, Blacksky needs to grow.

There are 4 options that create different pathways and outcomes that we could take:

• Option 1: Ship new features, grow our user base, and organically grow the business by better supporting our members as well as other communities that want to use our infrastructure. This does require using agentic coding within our developing of features as needed.
• Option 2: Raise venture capital and use the funds to hire more developers so that we can offset using AI coding tools. Leaving aside the various ethical problems with venture capital, in the current environment, raising money for a startup that is not building an AI product – and we are not doing this – is incredibly difficult. The founder, being a Black, first-time founder, makes these odds nearly impossible. Doing this with a commitment to not using AI coding tools makes us uninvestable (which is not necessarily a bad thing!). 
• Option 3: Implement traditional social media business models that will let us hire more developers without relying on AI coding tools. These include selling user data to advertisers and/or running ads in the app. 
• Option 4: Not grow. Keep the existing Blacksky product as it is, use existing funds and time to manually maintain existing infrastructure and pay moderators, but this will put Blacksky at a higher risk of cannibalisation from competitors that provide feed services, and leave the core team with the hard choice of possibly stepping away from their work with Blacksky in order to find viable full-time work to support themselves.

As a team, we have a strong preference for the first option. Blacksky’s mission is to build a safe space online for Black people and other marginalized communities using all the tools at our disposal in a time when the internet is increasingly a hostile place. The first option is the one that lets us stay truest to these values. However, it’s also the option where AI coding tools become the most important. There are currently only two developers, including Rudy, working on this as if it was their full-time job. AI tools are why this team size is sufficient to ship features like a full Appview, Blacksky only posts, Acorn (which will support Blacksky and other communities on the decentralized web), and eventually blacksky.cash. Before AI coding tools, this would have required a much larger team, VC funding, and/or an exploitative business model. 

Given this, we are asking the community to help us decide the following:

1. 1. As a whole, do we want the Blacksky community to grow? This means shipping features community members want (e.g., Blacksky only posts), supporting other communities, and bringing on more moderators.
2. 2. If the answer is yes, what is the concrete path forward?

We will soon be releasing an Assembly to allow you all to contribute to this discussion. The assembly is limited to those who support Blacksky – if you’re on the PDS, on the feeds, or contribute to the company. Your responses will help us gauge community sentiment on what the path forward is and determine the tradeoffs that we are comfortable making to get there.