Bot

A bot is a program that acts automatically in place of a person — the word is short for “robot.” The “bot” in “chatbot” is this, and so is an auto-reply on a messaging app, a program that controls NPCs in a game, or an automated account on social media.

The term predates AI, so its tone shifts with context. A “workflow automation bot” sounds like a helpful tool, a crackdown on “bot accounts” points to opinion manipulation or spam, and “bot traffic” refers to the share of website visitors that aren't actually human. As generative AI has pushed bots' conversational skill up to human level, telling apart “is this a person or a bot” on social media has become a real social problem — memes like the “dead internet theory” grew out of this anxiety.