I created an expanding blog entry on the different types of chatbots.

Posting it here in case anyone else finds it useful, or is confused by all the different types of chatbots,

So far its defines,
[ul]
[li]Virtual Agents[/li]
[li]Chatterbots[/li]
[li]Knowledge bots[/li]
[li]Twitterbots[/li]
[li]AI bots[/li]
[/ul]

http://botlibre.blogspot.ca/2015/05/what-is-chatbot-chatterbot-virtual.html

> meta-guide.com/html-sitemap

Haha, good effort!  That’s one way to attack the conundrum, or slippery slope…. 

I’ve also got an ongoing “taxonomy of bots” under my Meta Guide Sitemap.

I’m finding that the more I focus my new AI skill on “artificial intelligence” itself, the more I fall into my own personal “singularity”, hence slippery slope….  In other words, when you start using artificial intelligence to study AI, it can quickly mushroom into something barely manageable, if not overwhelming.

A chat bot, or chatbot is a software program that responds to questions in natural language

So would you call IBM’s Watson a type of chatbot too? I personally feel that the synonymous meaning of “chatbot” and “chatterbot” is a little too indicative of their common purpose to be applied to AI of other purposes.

> chatbots.org/ai_zone/viewthread/1059/ (18 Oct 2012)

I have noticed that very often IRC “do-engines” are erroneously referred to as “chat bots”.  This has lead me to postulate a new theory for the origin of the term “chat bot”.  I believe that “chat bot” may have come about in reference to “Internet Relay Chat” shortened to just “Chat”; therefore any IRC bots may have been referred to as “Chat bots”.  I found it peculiar that so many “do-engines” were apparently erroneously being referred to as “conversational agents”; natural language commands do not a “chatbot” make….

> So would you call IBM’s Watson a type of chatbot too?

Well if he can chat and is a bot, I suppose he would qualify.  Answering questions is a form of chat, especially if done in context.  I’ve never talked to Watson personally, so can’t say for sure.