[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]
Having just unfolded what infrastructural harms could be, we now move to exploring bots. When we say bots, we refer to software agents which automatise certain actions and can run autonomously or semi-autonomously. Some of the most mentioned examples are voice assistants such as Alexa or Siri, but they can also be web crawlers indexing the web or bots maintaining Wikipedia.
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].
We will give a few examples of bots. They examplify how *bot logics* are put into practice.
We will give a few examples of bots to show how *bot logics* are put into practice.
**Stay Woke Bot**
In 2016, Darius Kazemi, a computer programmer and artist, made staywokebot[^staywoke] in conversation with Black Lives Matter activists DeRay Mckesson and Samuel Sinyangwe. The bot sent out messages to its Twitter followers to uplift activists' morale and provide joyful interactions. Kazemi has also worked on private bots for activists that take over some of the repetitive or distressing work. They attempt to mitigate the harm and exhaustion that activists are exposed to on communication platforms such as Twitter by acting as a type of prosthesis.
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