So, bots you say… – The AI guys – Medium

It is very likely that you've heard all the buzz that has been going lately about the chatbots, and how they're going to revolutionize everything in the coming years, but if you haven't, you must've been hidden in a cave with no internet access at all. Well, fear no more, dear reader, this is (part one of) all you need to know about chatbots. In general terms, a bot is a piece of software that automates a task, but talking specifically about chatbots, we come to the concept of automating an interaction through a conversational UI. Chatbots are a way in which you can automate a written conversation, simulating an interaction between two real human beings. Think of it as a magical black box that understands what you tell it with your daily English (or Spanish, or German, or Mandarin, or whatever) and answers you in the same language, and not in a stream of ones and zeros.