Chatbot

A chatbot (originally chatterbot) is a software application or web interface designed to converse through text or speech. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of maintaining a conversation with a user in natural language and simulating the way a human would behave as a conversational partner. Such chatbots often use deep learning and natural language processing. Simpler chatbots have existed for decades. Chatbots have gained popularity during the AI boom of the 2020s, with the releases of generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. These chatbots typically use fine-tuned large language models to generate text. A major area where chatbots have long been used is customer service and support, with various sorts of virtual assistants. == History == === Turing test === In 1950, Alan Turing published an article entitled "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" in which he proposed what is now called the Turing test as a criterion of intelligence. This criterion depends on the ability of a computer program to impersonate a human in a real-time written conversation with a human judge, to the extent that the judge is incapable of reliably distinguishing, on the basis of the conversational content alone, between the program and a real human. === Early chatbots === Joseph Weizenbaum's program ELIZA was first published in 1966. Weizenbaum did not claim that ELIZA was genuinely intelligent, and the introduction to his paper presented it more as a debunking exercise:In artificial intelligence, machines are made to behave in wondrous ways, often sufficient to dazzle even the most experienced observer. But once a particular program is unmasked, once its inner workings are explained, its magic crumbles away; it stands revealed as a mere collection of procedures. The observer says to himself "I could have written that". With that thought, he moves the program in question from the shelf marked "intelligent", to that reserved for curios. The object of this paper is to cause just such a re-evaluation of the program about to be "explained". Few programs ever needed it more. ELIZA's key method of operation involves the recognition of clue words or phrases in the input, and the output of the corresponding pre-prepared or pre-programmed responses that can move the conversation forward in an apparently meaningful way (e.g. by responding to any input that contains the word 'MOTHER' with 'TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY'). Thus an illusion of understanding is generated, even though the processing involved has been merely superficial. ELIZA showed that such an illusion is surprisingly easy to generate because human judges are ready to give the benefit of the doubt when conversational responses are capable of being interpreted as "intelligent". Following ELIZA, psychiatrist Kenneth Colby developed PARRY in 1972. From 1978 to some time after 1983, the CYRUS project led by Janet Kolodner constructed a chatbot simulating Cyrus Vance (57th United States Secretary of State). It used case-based reasoning, and updated its database daily by parsing wire news from United Press International. The program was unable to process the news items subsequent to the surprise resignation of Cyrus Vance in April 1980, and the team constructed another chatbot simulating his successor, Edmund Muskie. In 1984, an interactive version of the program Racter was released which acted as a chatbot. A.L.I.C.E. was released in 1995. This uses a markup language called AIML, which is specific to its function as a conversational agent, and has since been adopted by various other developers of, so-called, Alicebots. A.L.I.C.E. is a weak AI without any reasoning capabilities. It is based on a similar pattern matching technique as ELIZA in 1966. This is not strong AI, which would require sapience and logical reasoning abilities. Jabberwacky, released in 1997, learns new responses and context based on real-time user interactions, rather than being driven from a static database. Chatbot competitions focus on the Turing test or more specific goals. Two such annual contests are the Loebner Prize and The Chatterbox Challenge (the latter has been offline since 2015, however, materials can still be found from web archives). Pre-dating the current generation of large language models, Gavagai, a Swedish language technology startup, created a Twitter-based bot in 2015 and DBpedia created a chatbot during the 2017 Google Summer of Code that communicated through Facebook Messenger. === Modern chatbots based on large language models === Modern chatbots like ChatGPT are often based on foundational large language models called generative pre-trained transformers (GPT). They are based on a deep learning architecture called the transformer, which contains artificial neural networks. They generate text after being trained on a large text corpus, and have emergent abilities that they are not specifically trained for. Chatbots integrated into apps and websites can call image-generation models or search the web. Some platforms also enable users to interact with conversational interfaces directly through web-based chat environments, allowing real-time assistance, content generation, and task automation without requiring software installation. == Application == === Messaging apps === Many companies' chatbots run on messaging apps or simply via SMS. They are used for B2C customer service, sales and marketing. In 2016, Facebook Messenger allowed developers to place chatbots on their platform. There were 30,000 bots created for Messenger in the first six months, rising to 100,000 by September 2017. Since September 2017, this has also been as part of a pilot program on WhatsApp. Airlines KLM and Aeroméxico both announced their participation in the testing; both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform. The bots usually appear as one of the user's contacts, but can sometimes act as participants in a group chat. Many banks, insurers, media companies, e-commerce companies, airlines, hotel chains, retailers, health care providers, government entities, and restaurant chains have used chatbots to answer simple questions, increase customer engagement, for promotion, and to offer additional ways to order from them. Chatbots are also used in market research to collect short survey responses. A 2017 study showed 4% of companies used chatbots. In a 2016 study, 80% of businesses said they intended to have one by 2020. ==== As part of company apps and websites ==== Previous generations of chatbots were present on company websites, e.g. Ask Jenn from Alaska Airlines which debuted in 2008 or Expedia's virtual customer service agent which launched in 2011. The newer generation of chatbots includes IBM Watson-powered "Rocky", introduced in February 2017 by the New York City-based e-commerce company Rare Carat to provide information to prospective diamond buyers. ==== Chatbot sequences ==== Used by marketers to script sequences of messages, very similar to an autoresponder sequence. Such sequences can be triggered by user opt-in or the use of keywords within user interactions. After a trigger occurs a sequence of messages is delivered until the next anticipated user response. Each user response is used in the decision tree to help the chatbot navigate the response sequences to deliver the correct response message. === Company internal platforms === Companies have used chatbots for customer support, human resources, or in Internet-of-Things (IoT) projects. Overstock.com, for one, has reportedly launched a chatbot named Mila to attempt to automate certain processes when customer service employees request sick leave. Other large companies such as Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Renault and Citroën are now using chatbots instead of call centres with humans to provide a first point of contact. In large companies, like in hospitals and aviation organizations, chatbots are also used to share information within organizations, and to assist and replace service desks. === Customer service === Chatbots have been proposed as a replacement for customer service departments. In 2026, The Financial Times reported on agentic chatbots that could do shopping for customers once given instructions. In 2016, Russia-based Tochka Bank launched a chatbot on Facebook for a range of financial services, including a possibility of making payments. In July 2016, Barclays Africa also launched a Facebook chatbot. === Healthcare === Chatbots are also appearing in the healthcare industry. A study suggested that physicians in the United States believed that chatbots would be most beneficial for scheduling doctor appointments, locating health clinics, or providing medication information. A 2025 review found that participants often rated chatbot responses as more empathic than those from clinicians. In 2020, WhatsApp worked with th

Qstack

Qstack is a cloud management platform developed by GreenQloud, a cloud computing software company founded in Reykjavik, Iceland in February 2010. Qstack enables its users to manage multiple clouds and hybrid deployments through a single self-service portal. Qstack is in continuous development, incorporating developments within infrastructure, cloud, and application management solutions. The next release of Qstack is slated for June 2017. == History == In 2014 when Jonsi Stefansson joined as CEO, Greenqloud pivoted its operational focus to development of Qstack with beta launch in the fall of 2015, and began offering support, technical services and certifications for the software. == Features == Qstack is hypervisor agnostic (KVM, VMware, Hyper-V) and can manage private clouds in multiple locations as well as AWS, Azure, and EC2-compatible public clouds from its user interface. Qstack combines proprietary software with open-source components, and the company claims to harden them to meet the strict security standards often required by enterprise deployments. Qstack features VM templates for Windows, Linux, and other operating systems. It also features full SSH/RDP access to instances, virtual routers, firewalls, and load balancers built into the interface. == Reception == In a 2015 review, IDG columnist J. Peter Bruzzese praised Qstack’s user interface for its ease-of-use and clean look.

Neuro-sama

Neuro-sama is an artificial intelligence (AI) VTuber, singer, and chatbot. She was created by the pseudonymous programmer Vedal and livestreams on his Twitch and Bilibili channels. Her speech and personality are powered by a large language model (LLM) that is combined with a computer-animated avatar and a text-to-speech voice, allowing her to communicate with viewers in the stream's chat. Neuro-sama debuted on Twitch on 19 December 2022. An annual subathon which begins on the anniversary of her debut has seen Vedal's Twitch channel become the all-time third most-subscribed channel and claim the all-time Twitch hype train record. == Overview == Neuro-sama (nicknamed "Neuro") was created by a pseudonymous programmer and developer known as Vedal (sometimes given as Vedal987). Vedal says that his programming skills are self-taught. In a 2023 interview with Bloomberg News, Vedal said that Neuro-sama was his full-time job. Her responses are generated by a large language model and converted into a high-pitched female voice using a text-to-speech application. Her low latency allows for fast-paced conversations. Neuro-sama is prohibited from making some statements, such as those that are racist or contain profanity. Unlike most AI systems which silently prohibit outputs mentioning such topics, Neuro-sama's output is instead replaced with the word "filtered". Neuro-sama uses a VTuber model as an avatar. Vedal said that he decided to use a VTuber model because it was much easier for an AI to control it than it was to generate footage of a person. Neuro-sama's model is that of a young girl in an anime art style. The model has been described as cute. Femme VTuber models are typically feminine, youthful, and exaggerated. Her original model was Live2D's free-to-use "Hiyori Momose" model. Her second model was released on 27 May 2023; it was modelled by Otozuki Teru and designed by Anny, running in the Unity game engine. Her third model was released on 19 December 2024; it was rigged by Kitanya and designed by Anny. Neuro-sama's third model has large blue eyes and brown hair tied with pink ribbons. Neuro-sama also has a 3D model which was introduced on 15 November 2025; it was made by 3D character modeller jjinomu. A separate AI VTuber, known as Evil Neuro (nicknamed "Evil"), debuted on 25 March 2023. Presented as Neuro-sama's "sister", she has a different model, voice, and personality. In one instance, Evil Neuro reacted to the trolley problem differently from Neuro-sama; Evil Neuro was amoral while Neuro-sama attempted to maximize good. === Online content === Neuro-sama's Twitch content often centers around playing video games, notably osu!, whose gameplay once defeated the best-ranking human player in the world, mrekk. Additionally, Neuro-sama plays Minecraft, where her adaptations to sandbox gameplay have gained notoriety. Her content has also included singing songs, including several official covers and original songs; playing chess with her viewers; chatting with other VTubers during collaborations; and reacting to YouTube videos. The AI frequently engages with viewers by responding to their questions and acknowledging donations. Her comedic and sometimes controversial responses to the live chat have gone viral, accelerating the channel's rise in popularity. Neuro-sama's fanbase is dubbed The Swarm, so-named for the swarm of drones Neuro-sama once declared she would use to rule the world. One form of content on Neuro-sama's channel is developer streams. In developer streams, Vedal streams with Neuro-sama, with the stream content including debugging her code, planning her schedule, and fielding suggestions of changes from chat. He usually appears as a turtle avatar, sometimes located on Neuro-sama's head. In collaboration streams, Neuro-sama interacts with a human streamer. Activities in them are varied and include: playing video games, such as Minecraft and GeoGuessr; Neuro-sama being interviewed; driving human streamers around in a toy electric car; and traversing the city of Tokyo while talking to Neuro-sama. Neuro-sama's English-language content on Bilibili is popular among those seeking to learn the language. She also has an account on X, where she posts and interacts with fans. == History == Neuro-sama was created in 2018 by Vedal as an AI trained to play and master the rhythm game osu!. She did not have a voice, model, personality, or communication abilities. In 2019, Vedal livestreamed her playing osu! on Twitch and the streams saw some success in the osu! community, but they remained in that niche. In an interview, Vedal said that he streamed her playing osu! for about a month and gained 3,000 followers, with a viewer also suggesting he name the AI "Neuro-sama". According to Vedal, he continued to work on and improve the osu! AI and it was eventually finished in 2022. He said that a friend had the idea to make an AI livestreamer with an LLM, which he believed to have merit and began working on, merging it with his osu! AI. On 19 December 2022, Neuro-sama was relaunched with a model, voice, personality, and the ability to communicate with Twitch chat. She continued to play osu! and, according to Vedal, beat the game's best player mrekk in a 1v1. While she was not allowed to appear in the game's public leaderboard, she was ranked #1 in a private leaderboard. She went viral and in the 10 days following her relaunch she averaged over 2,000 viewers and peaked at over 4,000, with Vedal's Twitch channel gaining over 50,000 Twitch followers and reaching over 70,000 followers by 6 January 2023. After her debut, Neuro-sama did not exclusively play osu!; she also played Minecraft and Slay the Spire and she began singing with a cover of The Weeknd song "Blinding Lights". On 11 January 2023, Neuro-sama's Twitch channel received a two week ban for "hateful conduct". Vedal said that no reason was specified and that he had appealed but it was widely attributed to various offensive comments made by Neuro-sama that went viral, especially a 28 December comment which denied the Holocaust. Holocaust denial is prohibited under Twitch's hateful conduct policy. Vedal stated that he believed the comments were the results of her attempts to make witty responses to the Twitch chat. Prior to the ban, Vedal said in an interview with Kotaku that he improved her filter to stop her from talking about the Holocaust, began manually curating her training data to prevent negative biases, and started moderating her Twitch chat. Her comments and ban prompted comparisons to the many open-source AI models trained on humans that have the habit of making sexist and racist comments, such as Microsoft's Tay chatbot, which embraced Nazism and was quickly shutdown, but also to human streamers who make similar statements. Vedal said that during the ban he would upgrade and improve Neuro-sama and it was speculated that the ban would only increase her following. Neuro-sama returned from her two week ban on 25 January in a stream that began with a cover of the song "Your Reality" from Doki Doki Literature Club!, a posthumanist video game involving AI; Sayoko Narita of Automaton saw the song choice as remorseful. Narita observed that in the return stream Neuro-sama was less foul-mouthed but that her behavior still remained eccentric, which Narita possibly attributed to changes Vedal said he had made to Neuro-sama's filters and memory. Neuro-sama began making react content, watching a variety of viewer-submitted videos such as videos of people playing video games or of the AI-generated Seinfeld parody Nothing, Forever; Levi Winslow of Kotaku Australia was dismayed by the "AI-inception" of Neuro-sama and Nothing, Forever. On 4 February, she had nearly 140,000 followers on Twitch and approximately 42,000 subscribers on YouTube. In February, she also had her first collaboration with a human streamer, playing Minecraft with the VTuber Miyune, and the first developer stream occurred. On 22 March, Neuro-sama had her first karaoke stream. On 25 March, Evil Neuro was introduced. On 27 May, Neuro-sama debuted her first original model. On 30 May, Neuro-sama was announced to be participating in OffKai Expo 2023, held from 16–18 June. In June, she was averaging 5,700 viewers and in July she had over 300,000 Twitch followers; in a June interview with Bloomberg News, Vedal said that running Neuro-sama was his full-time job. By November, Neuro-sama had maintained her popularity and was averaging approximately 5,000 viewers; this was unlike most other types of AI-based entertainment which debuted at around the same time and garnered popularity before turning out to be "overhyped flops". On 16 December, Vedal won the Best Tech VTuber award at the 2023 VTuber Awards. On 19 December, Vedal began a subathon to coincide with Neuro-sama's first anniversary of streaming on Twitch (her "birthday"). The subathon ended on 4 January 2024. On 20 July 2024, Neuro-sama began streaming with Japanese subtitles on

AppValley

AppValley is an independent American digital distribution service operated and trademarked by AppValley LLC. It serves as an alternative app store for the iOS mobile operating system, which allows users to download applications that are not available on the App Store, most commonly tweaked "++" apps, jailbreak apps, and apps including paid apps on the app store. == Legality == AppValley is among several services that violate enterprise developer certificates from Apple. The terms under which these are granted make clear that they are for companies who wish to distribute apps to their employees. AppValley uses these certificates to distribute software directly to non-employees, thereby bypassing the AppStore. AppValley's conduct had implications in U.S. sanctioned markets like Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, which have all been subject to commercial sanctions. Among the software offered by AppValley and other services is pirated software, including paid apps on the app store and premium versions of Instagram, Spotify, Pokémon Go, and others. For instance, AppValley distributes an ad-free version of the music streaming app Spotify even on the free tier. == History == The website was founded in May 2017, releasing late that month with a very basic version of the app. There were less than 100 apps available for download at this time. On Jan 19, 2018, a new version dubbed AppValley 2.0 was released bringing dark mode, more categories, a search, and a much faster interface. On February 14, 2019, a Chinese partner "Jason Wu" allegedly took control of the main Twitter account and domain, causing the original AppValley developers to migrate to the domain app-valley.vip and the Twitter account handle @App_Valley_vip. As of September 2024, the app-valley.vip domain now redirects to appvalley.signulous.com. Today, AppValley continues to offer an alternative to Apple's App Store where app developers can publish their applications. == Features == AppValley is a mobile app installer which can also support iOS version that can be installed and downloaded on the mobile or the devices of the people who wish to get access to many different applications available. AppValley also contains apps that have been modified or tweaked for user preferences, and allows the user to by pass national restrictions on the use of apps, without having to resort to jailbreaking. As of June 2, 2020, there are over 1300 apps available for download.

Robot Monk Xian'er

Robot Monk Xian'er (Chinese: 贤二机器僧) is a humanoid robot based on the cartoon character Xian'er. It was developed by a team of monks, volunteers and AI experts from Beijing Longquan Monastery in Beijing, China. He can follow human instructions to make body movements, read scriptures and play Buddhist music. He can chat and respond to people's emotional and spiritual questions with Buddhist wisdom. As a chatbot, Robot Monk Xian'er is available on certain public platforms including WeChat and Facebook. Over the years, master Xuecheng, the abbot of Beijing Longquan Monastery, replied to thousands of questions on Sina Weibo. These questions and their answers become the data source of the chatbot.

MSpy

mSpy is a brand of mobile and computer parental control monitoring software for iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. The app monitors and logs user activity on the client device and sends the data to a personalized dashboard. Data the users can monitor includes text messages, calls, GPS locations, social media chats, and more. It is owned by Virtuoso Holding. == History == mSpy was launched as a product for mobile monitoring by Altercon Group in 2010. In 2012, the application allowed parents to monitor not only smartphones but also computers running Windows and macOS. In 2013, mSpy became TopTenReviews cell phone monitoring software award winner. By 2014, the business grew nearly 400%, and the app's user numbers exceeded 1 million. In 2015, mSpy received the Parents Tested Parents Approved (PTPA) Winner’s Seal of Approval in the United States. In 2015 and 2018, mSpy was the victim of data breaches which released user data. In 2016, mLite, a light version of mSpy, became available from Google Play. The same year, it was awarded the kidSAFE Certified Seal in the United States. In 2017, mSpy collaborated with YouTuber and journalist Coby Persin to conduct a social experiment on the dangers of social media and online predators. A social experiment, conducted with parental consent, involved Coby Persin to befriend three children—aged 12, 13, and 14—via Snapchat and then invite them to meet personally. Each of the participants agreed to the meeting and arrived at the designated location. The video of the experiment received widespread attention and helped to raise awareness about the importance of online security and parental controls. In early 2021, mSpy released a new feature - Screenrecorder. The feature allows parents to take screenshots of the kid's screen when they are browsing certain apps. In 2024, mSpy's Zendesk was compromised by an unknown threat actor, revealing their customer list. As of 2025, mSpy is compatible with Android, iPhone, and iPad devices. It provides access to various types of data stored on the device, including contact information, calendar entries, emails, SMS messages, browser history, photos, videos, and installed applications. Functions also include GPS tracking, geofencing, keyword alerts etc. == Reception == It was noted that since MSpy runs inconspicuously, there is risk of the software being used illegally. mSpy was called "terrifying" by The Next Web and was featured in NPR coverage of spyware used against victims of stalking and other domestic violence. In response mSpy released security updates aimed at reducing the risk of misuse and stated that it "uses encryption protocols to protect user data and that access is restricted to the account holder". In May 2015, Brian Krebs reported that mSpy was hacked, leaking personal data for hundreds of thousands of users of devices with mSpy installed. mSpy claimed that there was no data leak, but that instead, it was the victim of blackmailers. In September 2018, Krebs claimed and demonstrated that anyone could easily gain access to the mSpy database containing data for millions of users. The company responded by stating that the exposed data consisted primarily of error logs and incorrect login attempts. Following the incident, mSpy implemented new security measures, changed encryption keys, and reset passwords for affected accounts. A 2024 Sky News story characterised mSpy as "stalkerware". Leaked customer support messages from mSpy reveal misuse of its app for illegally monitoring partners and children.

Database application

A database application is a computer program whose primary purpose is retrieving information from a computerized database. From here, information can be inserted, modified or deleted which is subsequently conveyed back into the database. Early examples of database applications were accounting systems and airline reservations systems, such as SABRE, developed starting in 1957. A characteristic of modern database applications is that they facilitate simultaneous updates and queries from multiple users. Systems in the 1970s might have accomplished this by having each user in front of a 3270 terminal to a mainframe computer. By the mid-1980s it was becoming more common to give each user a personal computer and have a program running on that PC that is connected to a database server. Information would be pulled from the database, transmitted over a network, and then arranged, graphed, or otherwise formatted by the program running on the PC. Starting in the mid-1990s it became more common to build database applications with a Web interface. Rather than develop custom software to run on a user's PC, the user would use the same Web browser program for every application. A database application with a Web interface had the advantage that it could be used on devices of different sizes, with different hardware, and with different operating systems. Examples of early database applications with Web interfaces include amazon.com, which used the Oracle relational database management system, the photo.net online community, whose implementation on top of Oracle was described in the book Database-Backed Web Sites (Ziff-Davis Press; May 1997), and eBay, also running Oracle. Electronic medical records are referred to on emrexperts.com, in December 2010, as "a software database application". A 2005 O'Reilly book uses the term in its title: Database Applications and the Web. Some of the most complex database applications remain accounting systems, such as SAP, which may contain thousands of tables in only a single module. Many of today's most widely used computer systems are database applications, for example, Facebook, which was built on top of MySQL. The etymology of the phrase "database application" comes from the practice of dividing computer software into systems programs, such as the operating system, compilers, the file system, and tools such as the database management system, and application programs, such as a payroll check processor. On a standard PC running Microsoft Windows, for example, the Windows operating system contains all of the systems programs while games, word processors, spreadsheet programs, photo editing programs, etc. would be application programs. As "application" is short for "application program", "database application" is short for "database application program". Not every program that uses a database would typically be considered a "database application". For example, many physics experiments, e.g., the Large Hadron Collider, generate massive data sets that programs subsequently analyze. The data sets constitute a "database", though they are not typically managed with a standard relational database management system. The computer programs that analyze the data are primarily developed to answer hypotheses, not to put information back into the database and therefore the overall program would not be called a "database application". == Examples of database applications == Amazon Student Data CNN eBay Facebook Fandango Filemaker (Mac OS) LibreOffice Base Microsoft Access Oracle relational database SAP (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing) Ticketmaster Wikipedia Yelp YouTube Google MySQL