Chatbot

Older chatbots only exchanged questions and answers that were written in advance. In a banking app, tapping "lost card" would show a fixed set of instructions. If you asked even a little differently, it would reply "I didn't understand."

Today's chatbots use an LLM, so they can write an answer even to a question they have never heard. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are typical examples. A chatbot stops at answering what you ask. Something that does a job with many steps on its own is called an AI agent.

The automated phone line that kept repeating "press 1 for billing, press 2 to cancel" is the old kind of chatbot. Today's chatbot is closer to a support agent who listens to your situation and answers sensibly.

The chatbot is the front door where many people first meet AI. But it can be wrong even when it sounds convincing, so check anything important separately.