But instead of clanking around a laboratory bumping into walls, software robots are executable programs that maneuver through cyberspace bouncing off communications protocols. And, as the above example illustrates, bots can also be used as weapons. But most bot connoisseurs consider true bots to be more than just mindless ones and zeroes. Real bots talk, make jokes, have feelings - even if those feelings are nothing more than cleverly conceived algorithms. Whatever their true definition, one thing's for sure.
Bots are hot.
In online environments, they are both popular and pestiferous, the cause of constant comment and debate. And though bots vary in form and function, they share common identifiers. They are proliferating. They are increasingly complex. They cause as many problems as they solve.