Dictionary

chatbot en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈtʃætbɑt/ (Canada)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From chat + -bot, from earlier chatterbot.

Meanings

1. (Internet, qualifier:artificial intelligence) A computer program that holds conversations through a chat room.
   • Before ChatGPT distorted Eugene Torres’s sense of reality and almost killed him, he said, the artificial intelligence chatbot had been a helpful, timesaving tool. 2025 June 13, Kashmir Hill, “They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • To deal with a large number of typical queries, “chatbots” technology should be considered. A chatbot can be defined as an intelligent evolution of email. The chatbot categorizes messages on the fly and provides answers to questions accordingly. As such, it can be used as a customer support tool. 2000, Handbook on Electronic Commerce, Springer, →ISBN, page 59:
   • Generative AI won’t be the end of employment, we are told, only “boring work” – with chatbots helpfully doing all the soul-destroying, repetitive tasks and humans merely supervising them. 2023 May 8, Naomi Klein, “AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • Chatbot technology, of course, dates back to Weizenbaum’s early experiments with his Eliza program. 2015, John Markoff, Machines of Loving Grace […] , New York: Ecco Press, →ISBN, page 221:
   • Wolfram Alpha researcher and chatbot author Robert Lockhart describes the chatbot community as being split between two competing approaches, what he calls “pure semantics” and “pure empiricism.” 2012, Brian Christian, The Most Human Human […] , Anchor Books, →ISBN, page 29:
   • Last year, a 14-year-old boy died by suicide after falling in love with a chatbot from Character.AI. The last thing he did was have a conversation with an AI avatar that, possibly failing to recognize the severity of the situation, reportedly encouraged him to go through with his plan to “join her”. 2025 July 16, Marcus Mendes, “Grok may be breaking App Store rules with sexualized AI chatbots, and that’s not the only problem”, in 9 to 5 Mac:
   • Mr. Aumann confronted his student over whether he had written the essay himself. The student confessed to using ChatGPT, a chatbot that delivers information, explains concepts and generates ideas in simple sentences — and, in this case, had written the paper. 2023 January 16, Kalley Huang, “Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • The chatbot was quite simple yet informative.

Forms

Deriveds

chatbot psychosis

Relateds

infobot

Translations (26)

fi keskustelubotti (program that holds conversations) · ja チャットボット (program that holds conversations) · hu csevegőrobot (program that holds conversations) · yue 傾偈機械人 /倾偈机械人 (program that holds conversations) · ru чат-бо́т (program that holds conversations) · ca xatbot (program that holds conversations) · ko 챗봇 (program that holds conversations) · ga róbat comhrá (program that holds conversations) · ca bot conversacional (program that holds conversations) · fr chatbot (program that holds conversations) · de Chatbot (program that holds conversations) · sv dialogrobot (program that holds conversations) · fr dialogueur (program that holds conversations) · cy sgyrsfot (program that holds conversations) · mi karekōrero (program that holds conversations) · sv chattrobot (program that holds conversations) · ka ჩატბოტი (program that holds conversations) · nl chatbot (program that holds conversations) · cmn 聊天機器人 /聊天机器人 (program that holds conversations) · ka სასაუბრო ბოტი (program that holds conversations) · bg чатбот (program that holds conversations) · pt chatbot (program that holds conversations) · es chatbot (program that holds conversations) · es bot conversacional (program that holds conversations) · el κειμενογεννήτρια (program that holds conversations) · uk чат-бо́т (program that holds conversations)