Fintech company Block has released Buzz, a free and open-source shared workspace designed to let humans and AI agents collaborate, positioning it as a more auditable and self-hostable alternative to tools like Slack and GitHub. The launch follows Block's recent cuts of over 4,000 jobs attributed to AI, and the tool aims to give AI agents the same capabilities as human teammates, including opening repositories, sending patches, reviewing code, and running workflows, all under a consistent audit trail.

Buzz is built on the decentralised Nostr protocol, giving both humans and bots cryptographic identities via distinct keypairs, an approach Block says supports governance and security. Block's head of AI capabilities, Bradley Axen, argued that companies need an open space for human-agent collaboration rather than a proprietary one. However, the report notes scepticism about the approach, questioning whether humans and bots can realistically share the same communication space given their differing working speeds, and pointing out that large tech firms with competing interests in this area, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, have not consistently favoured openness themselves.