Definition
Systems that use automated reasoning to aid or replace a decision-making process that humans would otherwise perform. Despite this, humans are ultimately responsible for how these systems receive inputs, how they are used and all system outputs. In keeping with the definition proposed by AlgorithmWatch, we consider ADMS as socio-technological frameworks that encompass a decision-making model, an algorithm that translates this model into computable code, the data this code uses as an input – either to ‘learn’ from it or to analyse it by applying the systems or users in specific ways. A bot usually performs predetermined tasks. When used to automate customer services or social media responses, bots can be designed to answer simple queries. In the context of disinformation, bots are often designed to emulate real users.