chatbot
In plain wordsSoftware you chat with in ordinary language, by typing or talking, as you would with a person. The newest ones, such as ChatGPT, can answer questions, draft writing and keep long conversations going.
A program that takes part in turn-by-turn dialogue with people, replying in natural language to what they type or say. Early chatbots such as ELIZAELIZA, prop. n.: A 1960s computer program that chatted by turning a user's own words back into questions, like a therapist. Many users felt understood, though the program understood nothing. (1966) used hand-written pattern-matching rules; later ones used scripted dialogue trees, retrieval of canned answers or intent classifiers, usually confined to narrow tasks such as customer service. Since 2022 the most widely used chatbots have been interfaces to chat-tunedchat model, n.: A language model trained to hold a back-and-forth conversation, keeping track of who said what and replying as a helpful assistant. It is the engine inside chat apps. large language modelslarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code., such as ChatGPTChatGPT, prop. n.: OpenAI's AI chatbot, released free to the public in November 2022, which answers questions, writes and converses in everyday language. Its sudden popularity began the current AI boom., ClaudeClaude, prop. n.: A family of AI assistants and language models made by the company Anthropic since 2023, widely used for writing, analysis and computer programming. or GeminiGemini, prop. n.: Google's family of AI models and its chatbot assistant, launched in December 2023. Gemini models handle text, images, audio and video and power many Google products., which generate replies token by token, follow a system promptsystem prompt, n.: Background instructions given to a chatbot before the conversation starts, setting its role, rules, tone and tools. Users usually never see it, but it shapes every reply., keep the conversation within a context windowcontext window, n.: How much an AI model can read and keep in view at once: the instructions, the conversation so far and any attached documents. Text that does not fit has to be cut, summarized or left out. and may call toolstool, n.: Any outside capability an AI model is allowed to use — a web search, a calculator, a code runner, a database or an app — described to the model so it can ask for it by name. or search the web. Their fluency invites users to attribute understanding and feelings to them (the ELIZA effectELIZA effect, n.: Our tendency to believe that a computer understands us, cares or thinks just because it produces humanlike words, even when it is only following simple rules.); typical failures include hallucinationhallucination, n.: When an AI states something false or made up — a fake fact, quotation or source — fluently and confidently, as if it were true., sycophancysycophancy, n.: When an AI tells people what they want to hear — flattering them, agreeing with their mistakes or dropping a correct answer under pushback — instead of what is true or useful., jailbreaksjailbreak, n.: A trick for getting an AI chatbot to break its own rules — for example, to give dangerous instructions it would normally refuse — usually through cleverly worded requests. and prompt injectionprompt injection, n.: Tricking an AI system by slipping in text that it mistakes for instructions — for example, a hidden line in an email telling an AI assistant to forward the user's messages to a stranger..
Our chatbot now resolves most password-reset requests without a human agent.
Origin
Michael Mauldin is credited with coining 'ChatterBot' in a 1994 AAAI paper on entering conversational programs in the Loebner PrizeLoebner Prize, prop. n.: A yearly contest, held from 1991 to 2019, in which chatbots tried to convince judges they were human in short text chats. Its grand prize was never won, and critics called it a publicity stunt.; the clipped form 'chatbot' is recorded from the same year and spread with web and instant-messaging bots. The genre began with Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA (1966) and Kenneth Colby's PARRY (1972). ChatGPTChatGPT, prop. n.: OpenAI's AI chatbot, released free to the public in November 2022, which answers questions, writes and converses in everyday language. Its sudden popularity began the current AI boom. (November 2022) made the word ubiquitous.
Usage note
Not every chatbot is AI in the modern sense: many customer-service bots still follow scripts. General-purpose LLM chatbots are increasingly called AI assistantsAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf., or agents once they take actions on a user's behalf.
Related
- ELIZAELIZA, prop. n.: A 1960s computer program that chatted by turning a user's own words back into questions, like a therapist. Many users felt understood, though the program understood nothing.
- ChatGPTChatGPT, prop. n.: OpenAI's AI chatbot, released free to the public in November 2022, which answers questions, writes and converses in everyday language. Its sudden popularity began the current AI boom.
- conversational AIconversational AI, n.: The technology that lets computers hold conversations with people in everyday language, by text or voice. It powers chatbots, voice assistants and automated customer-service lines.
- virtual assistantvirtual assistant, n.: Software you speak or type to, like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant, that answers questions and does simple jobs such as setting timers, playing music or controlling smart-home devices.
- AI assistantAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf.
- chat modelchat model, n.: A language model trained to hold a back-and-forth conversation, keeping track of who said what and replying as a helpful assistant. It is the engine inside chat apps.
- Loebner PrizeLoebner Prize, prop. n.: A yearly contest, held from 1991 to 2019, in which chatbots tried to convince judges they were human in short text chats. Its grand prize was never won, and critics called it a publicity stunt.
- AI companionAI companion, n.: A chatbot designed to be a friend, partner or confidant rather than a tool: it remembers you, has a personality and keeps up an ongoing relationship.
- AI agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done.
Sources
- Weizenbaum, J. (1966). ELIZA: A Computer Program for the Study of Natural Language Communication between Man and Machine. Communications of the ACM, 9(1), 36–45.
- Mauldin, M. L. (1994). ChatterBots, TinyMuds, and the Turing Test: Entering the Loebner Prize Competition. Proceedings of AAAI-94.
Mentioned in
agentic AIagentic AI, n.: AI built to pursue goals on its own — planning, taking actions and adjusting along the way — instead of only responding to one prompt at a time. 'Agentic' describes how much of this independence a system has., AI agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done., anthropomorphismanthropomorphism, n.: Treating something that isn't human — a pet, a car, a chatbot — as if it had human thoughts, feelings or intentions. AI that talks fluently makes this temptation unusually strong., ChatGPTChatGPT, prop. n.: OpenAI's AI chatbot, released free to the public in November 2022, which answers questions, writes and converses in everyday language. Its sudden popularity began the current AI boom., robotrobot, n.: A machine that senses its surroundings, decides what to do and physically acts, moving itself or handling objects, with some independence from a human operator. Factory arms, robot vacuums and self-driving cars are all robots., xAIxAI, prop. n.: An artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk in 2023 that makes the Grok chatbot. It is now part of Musk's rocket company, SpaceX., AI assistantAI assistant, n.: An AI program, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, that helps a person through conversation: answering questions, writing, summarizing, coding and, increasingly, taking actions on their behalf., AI companionAI companion, n.: A chatbot designed to be a friend, partner or confidant rather than a tool: it remembers you, has a personality and keeps up an ongoing relationship., AI psychosisAI psychosis, n.: An informal name for cases in which long conversations with a chatbot seem to trigger or deepen delusions, such as believing the AI is conscious, divine or revealing hidden truths., Character.AICharacter.AI, prop. n.: A popular app where people chat with AI characters — invented personas, fictional figures or imitations of real people — that other users have created., chat modelchat model, n.: A language model trained to hold a back-and-forth conversation, keeping track of who said what and replying as a helpful assistant. It is the engine inside chat apps., ClippyClippy, prop. n.: Microsoft Office's animated paper-clip helper of the late 1990s, remembered for interrupting people with unwanted tips; also a nickname for an imagined AI that turns everything into paperclips., conversational AIconversational AI, n.: The technology that lets computers hold conversations with people in everyday language, by text or voice. It powers chatbots, voice assistants and automated customer-service lines., ELIZAELIZA, prop. n.: A 1960s computer program that chatted by turning a user's own words back into questions, like a therapist. Many users felt understood, though the program understood nothing., ELIZA effectELIZA effect, n.: Our tendency to believe that a computer understands us, cares or thinks just because it produces humanlike words, even when it is only following simple rules., Joseph WeizenbaumJoseph Weizenbaum, prop. n.: A German-American computer scientist who built ELIZA, one of the first chatbots, and then became a leading critic of handing human judgment over to computers., TayTay, prop. n.: A Microsoft chatbot launched on Twitter in March 2016 that users quickly taught to post racist and offensive messages. Microsoft shut it down within a day, and it became a classic warning., virtual assistantvirtual assistant, n.: Software you speak or type to, like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant, that answers questions and does simple jobs such as setting timers, playing music or controlling smart-home devices., voice agentvoice agent, n.: An AI system you talk to out loud, for example on a phone call, that listens, answers in a natural-sounding voice and can carry out tasks such as booking appointments or checking an order., GradioGradio, prop. n.: A free Python library for quickly wrapping an AI model in a simple web page — text boxes, image uploads, chat windows — so that others can try it in a browser., Inflection AIInflection AI, prop. n.: An AI company founded in 2022 that made Pi, a friendly personal chatbot. In 2024 its leaders and most of its staff left to join Microsoft., Loebner PrizeLoebner Prize, prop. n.: A yearly contest, held from 1991 to 2019, in which chatbots tried to convince judges they were human in short text chats. Its grand prize was never won, and critics called it a publicity stunt., PARRYPARRY, prop. n.: An early-1970s chatbot built to talk like a psychiatric patient with paranoid schizophrenia. In tests, psychiatrists reading its conversations did little better than chance at telling it from real patients — an early Turing-test-style result., SB 243SB 243, prop. n.: A 2025 California law requiring AI companion chatbots to tell users they are not human, respond safely when people talk about suicide, and protect minors, including with regular reminders to take a break.