, instant messaging and other chat services.

Functions

How it works: the bot accepts incoming messages, analyzes them and sends the execution result and / or executes the command.

Service

  • Chat logging
  • Accounting for the rights of participants. For example, the ChanServ IRC service on IRC servers allows you to register a channel, and removes the operator status from incoming unregistered users, automatically giving statuses to those who were allowed by the channel creator or authorized users using special commands.
  • Keeping the chat secure. For example, it "kicks out" users if they repeat the same thing many times (flood protection), or by some parameters (for example, the name consists of several capital letters, or is an obscene expression) they look like an "unwanted" participant ...
  • Providing conference capabilities between more than two users in protocols without such a function.
Infotainment
  • Reference - an interface to a database that stores words and answers to them ("factoids", eng. factoids). There can be several answers, then a random one can be selected from them. One of these bots is the Infobot IRC bot ( English). Factoids can be created either directly by users or automatically by eavesdropping on their conversations with each other (for example, from messages with the line “is”).
    • Special case - dictionary
  • Virtual interlocutor - simulates communication.
    • Simplified version: the bot remembers everything said by the chat participants (see logging), and responds to messages with an arbitrary phrase built from it using Markov chains.
  • Games (see IRC game)
Utilities
  • Interpreter
  • Calculator
  • Commentator - comments on what has been said for the convenience of working with him. For example, when the phrase "bug 123456" is mentioned, it displays a URI link in the chat to the corresponding bug tracker entry related to the given IRC channel or Jabber conference.
  • Search for the specified string in a search engine and return, for example, the address and page title of the top result.

Links

  • IRC bots in the Open Directory Project (dmoz) link directory.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what "Bot (Internet)" is in other dictionaries:

    The term "robot" has other meanings as well. The term "bot" has other meanings as well. A robot or a bot, as well as an Internet bot, www bot, etc. (English bot, abbreviated from English robot) a special program that automatically and / or on ... ... Wikipedia

    Not to be confused with a targeted bot (Aimbot) type of cheating software for online gaming. This term has other meanings, see Robot (program). This term has other meanings, see Bot. ... ... Wikipedia

    Not to be confused with Target Bot. (English Aimbot) a type of software for cheating in online games Bot is a computer-controlled robot program that imitates partners in a network game, in network fights, team battles, etc. Wikipedia

    A botnet is a computer network made up of a number of hosts with autonomous software running by bots. Most often, a bot as part of a botnet is secretly installed on the victim's computer and ... ... Wikipedia

    Search engine is a website that provides the ability to search for information on the Internet. Most of the search engines look for information on the sites of the World Wide Web, but there are also systems that can search for files on ftp servers, goods in ... ... Wikipedia

Surely it happened to you - you go to the site, and you are offered to install a free mobile application? Sberbank, Gett taxi, Facebook, Avito, Lamoda - in general, “do it” you are offered by many sites every day. Looking at my phone, I counted more than 10 installed applications, and I use almost all of them every day. But due to the fact that the user's life is flowing from the "big Web" into messengers, the developers have come up with chat bots for us, which are designed to help users (navigate the Internet, search for the necessary information and much more).

A bit of history

Back in the 1950s, Alan Turing was doing research (Turing Test) whether humans could figure out a robot.

What was the essence:

A person must determine with whom he is talking to a person or a robot. The subject could ask questions and draw a conclusion only on their basis, and the task of the robot was to make the subject believe that he is a human.

And in 1964, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joseph Weisenbaum wrote the ELIZA bot program that could plausibly portray a psychotherapist and ask a patient questions.

As we can see, back in the middle of the 20th century, scientists tried to create a bot that would help us in our work and replace the assistant. And already in 1984 the director James Cameron made a splash with the film "The Terminator" (everyone watched it, and, I suppose, more than once). Everyone remembers that the essence of the film is to defeat artificial intelligence.

Finally, we got to the very essence of our article - artificial intelligence. Today, it is almost impossible to surprise anyone with robots that speak and understand our speech, but the problem is that they look unnatural, so we do not trust them (not like Schwarzenegger, right? Here is a good example of a robot that will be trusted). But until we have created such humanoid robots (although companies are already working on this), we will talk about other robots that, by the way, you already trust - chat bots.

Who are bots and why are they needed

Bots are internet robots that are meant to help us. They are ready to answer any question that interests you, tell you where you can dine, how to get to the place you need, what is in fashion today, what is the weather and much more.

Bots are everywhere

We meet robots everywhere, we just don't think about it. For example, last year Yandex announced a new format for news generated by bots.

According to Yandex, while such bots will create simple news notes that will be generated based on monitoring and analyzing data from the Web. The news excited news journalists, for whom news writing is their main source of income. Perhaps very soon robots will write not only news, but also analytical articles, and maybe do all our work. This is possible because a robot only needs to download information, while a person needs a lot of time to study a particular subject.

However, Yandex news is still far from perfect.

What are chatbots doing?

You can communicate with a bot on any topic, ask questions, find out news, and you do not need to use stamps, it will understand you and answer the way you want it. By the way, for each user / client the answer will be formulated differently (individually).

While I was writing this article, the wonderful British sci-fi movie Out of the Machine came to mind. If you are interested in robots and artificial intelligence, I recommend watching it.

Now let's move on to the chatbots that surround us.

Siri

Personal assistant developed on the iOS platform. Siri was born back in 2010 and was available as an app in the App Store, but soon it was bought by Apple and now it is an integral part of Apple iPhone (4S and older), iPad (third generation and older, as well as all iPad mini devices) , iPod touch 5g and Apple Watch. Siri spoke Russian only a year ago, when the developers updated the firmware to 8.3.

Cortana

This assistant from Microsoft helps Windows Phone 8.1 users. It is designed to anticipate the needs of the user. If you wish, you can give her access to her e-mail, address book - all so that she can help you (she will never forget about a friend's birthday or an important meeting).

Tay

A self-learning teenage bot from Microsoft, created for Twitter at the end of March 2016. He was programmed so that his communication style did not differ from English-speaking teenagers.

But as soon as the bot was launched on the Web, they began to ask him incorrect questions, one might say that the bot contacted a bad company. So, in just a day, the bot became a Nazi, after which Microsoft disabled its bot.

Google Chatbot

Google continues to experiment with a chatbot to make it even smarter and not at all different from a person. The Google bot can communicate with you on various topics, watch movies, and then discuss them, perhaps someday bots will replace human communication.

Facebook Messenger

On April 12, Facebook announced the launch of a chat bot, which will issue a user with a complicated text, but a colorful picture with a description. With the help of bots, users will be able to book a table in a restaurant or buy the desired product.

Bitrix 24

So we got to the Russian developers, ours still have gunpowder in their flasks! It is not hard to guess that the bitrix bot is available only for those who use Bitrix 24, these lucky ones can take advantage of this. The bot's name is Martha, she is always in touch, she will answer any question, help you understand the internal programs, and also talk with you on abstract topics.

@ya

Yandex developers have been working on the creation of bots for a long time, which are designed to help users. A month ago Yandex announced a new smart bot for the Telegram platform. This bot is designed to not easily search for music and video, translate texts, it can tell you what's new in the world or just talk to you. In addition, you can connect it to your internal correspondence with a friend, and if you need help or a suitable picture, the bot will always help you.

And I found this chatbot when I was preparing this article. Christina is a sex bot, but she can communicate on other topics as well. If interested, you can see for yourself.

Output

As we found out, today we are surrounded by many bots, and, sometimes, we do not notice them. And due to the fact that this direction is only developing, we will meet with them more than once. Remember that they are designed to make our life more convenient, easier, but they are not alive, so appreciate human communication!

With the modern trend in the development of information technology, there are more and more ways to manipulate human consciousness. There are many tools and various platforms, but it is social networks that have become the main springboard for such actions. Now we will talk about the so-called social bots - special programs created to imitate the behavior of people in social networks. The purpose of these programs can be different, but most often they are used by Internet marketers and cybercriminals.

Not so long ago, a group of scientists from the University of British Columbia led by Professor Yazan Bushmaf conducted a large-scale experiment to identify vulnerabilities in major social networks. The experimental part of the study lasted two months. During this time, scientists were able to obtain more than 250 GB of users' personal information from just one Facebook network. For these purposes, about a hundred bots were developed with a certain array of scripts, due to which they could impersonate real people.

The programs instantly created pages for themselves with photos and personal information. Also, bots could participate in dialogues, periodically change statuses and send messages with invites. As a result, in two months they were able to send 5053 messages to request personal data, of which 80% had a positive result. To prevent Facebook's anti-spam protection from working, bots sent no more than 25 messages per day. To increase user confidence, the programs used a social engineering technique called the triadic closure principle, which involves making mutual friends.

As a result, the experiment showed that the protection of most social networks is not ready for large-scale data theft attacks. 8 out of 10 users fall for the tricks of social bots without knowing it. However, the Facebook management said that the results of the experiment are greatly exaggerated, and their Facebook Immune system is constantly being improved to detect fake profiles and new types of cyber attacks.

The main types and tasks of social bots

Technical bots. In their structure, there are almost always specially prescribed programs. Their main tasks include accumulating likes and monosyllabic comments under the desired post, creating a large mass of friends to increase trust in the bot, and distributing publications through reposts. This is the most popular type of bots used on any social network, be it Facebook, VKontakte or Instagram.

Combat bots. They are required primarily to reduce the reputation or block a certain page on a social network by sending a large number of complaints and negative comments.

Drain bots. Sometimes special bots are used to distribute this or that information, which at first behave like real users, but at a certain point they begin to spread insider information. Subsequently, many online publications and media will refer to this fake source.

Hyperbolizing bots. This is perhaps the most subtle and sophisticated type of social bots, which is designed to gain trust in the customers of a competitor's customer with the further creation of anti-advertising. At first glance, the fake user fully supports the ideology and views of the opponent. But at a certain moment, he begins to spread exaggerated (exaggerated) information. For example, a bot infiltrates a group of fans of a certain car brand and informs that all car owners of other companies are stupid people with no taste. It is supported by other bots. As a result, many potential buyers will begin to be very skeptical about all owners of these cars and, accordingly, the entire brand as a whole.

Intelligent combat bots or simply "trolls". These bots are interesting because they use their own embedded intellectual resource. That is, the program, with the necessary data laid down, is sent to the information war to propagate an outside opinion. The main task of such a bot is to communicate on highly specialized topics in a specific topic or message thread. In addition, such a bot can often turn to insults or provocative statements against other users, thereby distracting attention from the main topic of the conversation. This type of bot is most popular when discussing political and social phenomena.

Bots from sites. Usually, little-known companies resort to help, creating an account for a virtual person. Usually such bots are inactive and easy to identify.

How to recognize a bot?

In order to protect yourself and not be attacked by bots, you need to know the main points that you should pay special attention to.

  • The account was recently created, but he actively publishes meaningless photos, links and posts;
  • The account was created recently, it is maintained by an unknown person, but it already has a large number of friends with pages almost identical to this profile;
  • The account was recently registered. There is no information or photos on him, but he actively communicates with other users and in groups;
  • The account owner never replies to comments under their own posts. Most often these are bots from sites. They can be easily calculated when trying to enter a simple dialogue with them;
  • The account was created a long time ago. For a long time he was inactive, after which he abruptly begins to publish dozens of entries a day. This often happens if the account has been hacked.

Therefore, if you are convinced that you have stumbled upon a bot, do not be lazy and send a complaint about it to the administration of the social network. It is known that today bots generate more than 60% of Internet traffic and it is quite possible to mislead even an intelligent person. The most interesting thing is that thousands of people around the world use the services of social bots, sometimes for very bad purposes. Fighting them is possible, but most likely useless, since new and more sophisticated ways of deceiving people will always appear.