Chatbot
A conversational interface powered by rules, scripts, or, today often,a large language model; distinct from agents when it only replies without acting in external systems.
A chatbot is a dialog-oriented interface, often built on fixed rules, scripts, or, today,a large language model (LLM). Classic bots follow patterns; modern ones use natural language processing (NLP), driven by a prompt and chat history.
They differ from AI agents when they mainly generate text and do not reliably plan, use tools, or act in external systems. The same model weights may power both a chat UI and an API. Public-facing bots need guardrails; early examples include ELIZA (1966, see also Turing test) before today’s LLMs. In everyday speech, “chatbot” often means the whole AI assistant in a browser or app.