What is Chatbot?
A chatbot is a program you hold a conversation with in plain language: you type something, the bot answers.
A chatbot is the familiar chat format: a window where you ask questions and get answers back. Chatbots used to follow fixed menus. Modern chatbots run on a language model and can respond far more freely. The customer-service bot on a website and ChatGPT are both chatbots.
It is the form you meet AI in most often. Good to know that 'the bot' does not really understand what it says; it predicts text.
Put precisely
Old chatbots followed fixed menus; new ones run on a language model and put together a fresh answer every time. The same word covers two very different things.
Common misconception
That a company's chatbot always states that company's official position. It can be wrong too.
Related words
Understand AI, calmly
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