They can be harmful, yet they can also be very helpful. Either way, bots have been around since the Internet began. Although even today, many of us are left wondering what exactly a bot is and what exactly a bot does. Most of us don’t realize we use bots every day, and sometimes in the most mundane ways–like setting an alarm clock on a device. Bots really are everywhere and have been around for decades, yet for whatever reason, they remain cloaked in mystery.
The term “bot” is short for robot. Quite simply, a bot is an app that helps make our lives easier, and their uses are many. Checking the weather for instance, or chatting with Siri, Cortana, or Alexa. And the next time you order a pizza online without ever speaking with a human being, that’s also a bot. Bots run automatically, with some just waiting for your next command. In large part, bots were created to complete common and repetitive tasks that humans used to do by hand. Bots do those everyday tasks much, much faster than any human ever could. Unfortunately, when bots are used for nefarious purposes, that’s when people sit up and pay attention.
At times controversial, bots have been in the news for better or worse. The 2016 US Presidential Election brought malicious bots into the mainstream light. The FBI discovered Russian operatives programmed bots, in this case for social media, for a massive social engineering campaign. Chat bots, on the other hand, are created to simulate human conversation.
According to a Gizmodo report, the massive Ashley Madison hack three years ago, exposed that the company created more than 70,000 female “chat bots” to message and engage prospective male clients in conversations. Other bots, called “spider bots,” do the mind-numbing task of scouring the Internet to gather information for a web search request. Versatility may be one key to understanding these “mini app” helpers.
And of course there is no shortage of the so-called "bad" bots. Recall any number of them lately, such as Virobot, Catellites bot, and Qakbot.
It’s not that bots are inherently “good” or “bad,” rather it’s the intention behind those who use them as the means to achieve a goal–whatever that goal may be. Good, bad or indifferent, the future of bots is the subject of much discussion. Some believe bots may begin replacing actual apps you use every day. Rather than having many apps, each for a different purpose, there may be one “bot app” doing the work of multiple apps. However, many feel there’s a definite need for bots to become much smarter before they begin to replace apps. Anyone who has experienced the frustration of asking Siri or Cortana for information, only to have them misunderstand your voice command, knows there’s room for improvement. Many believe that scenario alone is proof there’s still plenty of room for bots to improve. Like it or not, bots are here to stay–at least for today.