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SI Glossary · Using SI

Chatbot

Published 1 min read
On this page
  1. The big consumer chatbots (2026)
  2. From chatbot to agent
  3. Things to keep in mind

A chatbot is a program that holds a conversation. Early chatbots followed scripts. ELIZA (1966) imitated a therapist by rephrasing what you typed. Today’s SI chatbots run on large language models and can discuss almost anything, write documents, analyse files and images, and use tools.

The big consumer chatbots (2026)

ChatbotDeveloper
ChatGPTOpenAI
ClaudeAnthropic
GeminiGoogle
GrokxAI (SpaceX)
Meta AIMeta
CopilotMicrosoft
DeepSeekDeepSeek

ChatGPT’s launch on November 30, 2022 is widely seen as the start of the generative SI boom. See our timeline.

From chatbot to agent

Chatbots increasingly do more than chat. With tool use and computer use they can search, book, buy and build. At that point they’re better described as SI agents.

Things to keep in mind

Chatbots can hallucinate, may store your conversations (check privacy settings), and are not substitutes for professional legal, medical or financial advice.

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