Bots are commonly used in interactive or chat environments in order to simulate a conversation or action – they are programmed to function as characters who perform certain onscreen actions as if they were real people. The term itself is an abbreviated form of robot, though this does not refer to an actual robot machine, but merely an online character. Bots can also perform automated actions rather than simulating conversations.
Technipages Explains Bot
This can be things like automatically executing searches and filing away search results, or deleting messages containing certain inappropriate words from a website so it doesn’t have to be done manually. Bots can also be used to ‘spam’ messages and post them faster than a human could, which is why they are often not allowed on some servers or by certain services. Other bots can be useful, and help users with certain tasks, even work in the place of basic customer support by answering common questions when asked.
Bots come in all manner of different ways and the most famous of them is called Julia. She inhabits a multiuser dungeon called LambdaMoo and is so sophisticated that she managed to trick countless people into thinking that she is a real human being. Bots can be created by anyone with the relevant programming knowledge, some simple ones can even be customised to act a certain way by non-programmers, as long as they use the right tools. These bots won’t be very sophisticated though and are only capable of the most basic of actions.
Common Uses of Bot
- Bots can be harmful especially in the context of Internet Relay Chats.
- While bots can be used to replace simple, entry-level customer service tasks, they cannot replace human employees entirely.
- A bot can perform automated tasks much faster than a human.
Common Misuses of Bot
- Since it is short for robot, bot can refer to any sort of automated, semi-intelligent machinery.
