# ICQ-bots: What's the point?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icq-bots-whats-the-point/93608>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 15, 2001, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icq-bots-whats-the-point/93608 "2001-11-15T21:28:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icq-bots-whats-the-point/93608/1 "2001-11-15T21:28:23Z")

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In another thread they talk about ICQ-bots. What’s an ICQ-bot? What’s the point in making one?

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icq-bots-whats-the-point/93608/2 "2001-11-15T22:05:40Z")

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An ICQ-bot mass-messages ICQ users, pretending to be another ICQ client. Some people might do it for fun, but I suspect that most will use them for realtime [spam](http://www.mudd.dhs.org/miscpics/spam.jpg) delivery. Harder to ignore if you think it’s a real live person.

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**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2001, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icq-bots-whats-the-point/93608/3 "2001-11-15T22:18:48Z")

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The Turing Test is the standard by which many classes of artificial intelligence are judged, and it consists of the AI holding a conversation in which it is indistinquishable from a person. The actual “rules” may be worded differently, but that’s the gist. So, an ICQ bot could be an AI in development which is being tested for its conversational skills.

However, I’m with **Larry Mudd** in assuming that most of them are used for spam. There’s also a class of ICQ denizens who try to lure others into goofy conversations just for amusement. A bot could easily be used for this if you were trying to collect silly conversations but were too lazy to type for yourself.