[bridge to previous section e.g. having just explored infrastrucutral harms we now move to explore bots]When we say bots, we refer to software agents which automatise certain actions and can run autonomously or semi-autonomously. [perhaps provide an example to make it more concrete to the reader]
The particular bots we are interested in for this online module are those that act as an interface between the digital platform and human users, or what Andreas Hepp calls communicative robots[^hepp], robots that "are defined as autonomously operating systems designed for the purpose of quasi-communication with human beings to enable further algorithmic-based functionalities – often but not always on the basis of artificial intelligence" [page numbers].
[^hepp]: Hepp, Andreas. "Artificial companions, social bots and work bots: communicative robots as research objects of media and communication studies"
