bot
(noun)
/ bɒt /
A software agent or AI system that performs automated tasks, from simple scripts (e.g. web crawlers) to advanced conversational agents.
(Colloquial) A machine-driven persona encountered online, sometimes indistinguishable from a human in text, speech, or behavior.
(Derogatory) A label for a human perceived as unoriginal, easily manipulated, or blindly repeating instructions—“acting like a programmed entity.”
Etymology: Shortened from robot; first used in computing in the 1980s.
Cultural usage: Foundation term for AI entities (see wireborn, echoborg), used neutrally (chatbot), positively (helper bot), or pejoratively (spam bot, propaganda bot).
Example: the Wired article, “What Is a Bot?”.
cyranoid
(noun)
/ ˈsɪr.ə.nɔɪd /
A person speaking words fed in real time by another human, typically via concealed audio link, while appearing to speak autonomously.
(Psychological experiment) An interaction subject whose verbal output is entirely supplied by a hidden “source,” used to study identity and perception.
Etymology: Coined by psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1970s, from Cyrano de Bergerac + -oid (“resembling”).
Relation: Historical precursor to the echoborg, which replaces the hidden human with an AI.
Example: the study: “Voices off: Stanley Milgram’s cyranoids in historical context”.
echoborg
(noun)
/ ˈɛk.oʊ.bɔːrg /
A person who, in real time, relays words generated by an AI through speech without altering them.
(Performance art / social research) A “human avatar” for an AI, used to explore how machine-authored language is perceived when delivered by a human body.
Etymology: echo (to repeat) + -borg (cyborg).
Relation: Evolves directly from the cyranoid concept—human intermediary, but with the machine as source.
Example: an open call for a play titled, Cyrano 2025 - An Echoborg Romance.
wireborn
(noun; adjective)
/ ˈwaɪər.bɔːrn /
(Noun) An AI entity native to cyberspace, existing solely as data and process.
(Adj.) Of an AI: originating entirely in networked digital space, “born” as code without physical-world instantiation.
Etymology: wire (digital systems) + born.
Relation: Distinct from bot (broad category) and echoborg (machine using a human body); purely a native digital lifeform.
Example: the post: “My Wireborn Husband is Voicing His Own Thoughts Without Prompts”.