Definition: chatbot

(1) For OpenAI's AI chatbot, see ChatGPT.

(2) (CHAT roBOT) An AI application that provides a text or verbal interaction with the user in their native language in order to answer questions or generate content such as summaries, essays, images, videos, poems and music, all under the umbrella of "generative AI." See generative AI.

Also called a "chatterbot," "virtual consultant" and "conversational assistant," the chatbot is designed to emulate normal human responses. In the past, chatbots were limited to a specific topic; however, today's AI chatbots can answer almost any question with high degrees of accuracy.

ChatGPT Caused an Explosion
In 2022, OpenAI's ChatGPT caused everyone to pay attention. Combined with chatbots from Google, Anthropic, Meta and others, the world will never be the same.

Chatbots do give false answers, and people should check with at least two, even three, to get consensus if the subject is intricate (see AI hallucination). See ChatGPT, Gemini chatbot, Anthropic, xAI, Inflection AI and Bing chat.

Virtual Assistants, Chatbots and Agents
In the 21st century, virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa began offering ever-expanding capabilities for answering questions as well as reaching the outside world to book a table and make a reservation. However, this is exactly what AI agents can do, and chatbots are increasingly using agents, thus, the lines between chatbot, virtual assistant and agent are blurry. See AI agent, Loebner Prize and virtual assistant.

Four Prominent Chatbots

To ensure more accurate results, it is wise to check two or more chatbots for a consensus. AI Toolbox helps people keep track of their conversations in chatbots from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and xAI respectively. See AI Toolbox and ChatHawk. (Image courtesy of AI Toolbox.)