The ‘bots’ at heart of Twitter buyout row

The term bots at Twitter is often used to describe fake accounts, powered by some version of AI, that can fire off posts and even react to what is posted by others, said Enderle. — dpa

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk’s pausing of his bid to buy Twitter due to questions over “bots” has put the artificially-operated accounts at the heart of the proposed deal’s latest controversy.

The software is so commonplace and can be such a problem that tech giants such as Meta, Google and Twitter have teams devoted to banishing bots and cybersecurity firms sell defenses against them.