bot

[common on IRC, MUD and among gamers; from "robot"]

1. An {IRC} or {MUD} user who is actually a program. On IRC, typically the robot provides some useful service. Examples are NickServ, which tries to prevent random users from adopting {nick}s already claimed by others, and MsgServ, which allows one to send asynchronous messages to be delivered when the recipient signs on. Also common are `annoybots', such as KissServ, which perform no useful function except to send cute messages to other people. Service bots are less common on MUDs; but some others, such as the `Julia' bot active in 1990--91, have been remarkably impressive Turing-test experiments, able to pass as human for as long as ten or fifteen minutes of conversation.
2. An AI-controlled player in a computer game (especially a first-person shooter such as Quake) which, unlike ordinary monsters, operates like a human-controlled player, with access to a player's weapons and abilities. An example can be found at http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/.
3. Term used, though less commonly, for a web {spider}. The file for controlling spider behavior on your site is officially the "Robots Exclusion File" and its URL is "http:///robots.txt")

   Note that bots in all senses were `robots' when the terms first appeared in the early 1990s, but the shortened form is now habitual.

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