8 Ways Twitter Bots Can Actually Be Useful

If you’ve spent time on Twitter, you’ve probably dealt with irritating and spammy Twitter bots that follow you incessantly. They even unfollow you if you don’t follow back. But not all Twitter bots are the shady ones pushing sketchy products or sending suspicious links.

Some bots are created by programmers who enjoy tinkering with code and algorithms. They even consider themselves Internet artists, like Darius Kazemi, who creates fascinating and peculiar bots.

Believe it or not, some useful Twitter bots have emerged from these experiments. To give you an idea, I’ve searched through the vast Twitterverse and curated a list of eight ways Twitter bots can actually be helpful.

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We all need breaks from work every now and then to relieve stress. It’s important to take care of ourselves. That’s why I want to share some interesting bots with you. These bots provide helpful updates on natural disasters, such as storms, earthquakes, and tsunamis. They get their information from reliable sources, like the US Geological Survey. One bot even goes beyond just sharing information – it interacts with you! Wave Glider Holoholo collects data from the ocean near the Big Island of Hawaii. You can ask it questions and it will provide you with the weather report, helping you prepare for any changes in the weather. These bots are truly amazing and can be a valuable resource for staying informed.

2. Online Conversations/Debates

You know those Twitter bots that pretend to be humans? Well, there’s one called Olivia Taters that’s so convincing, people don’t even realize they’re talking to a bot. It’s like she’s a real teenage girl!

Here’s how it works: the bot uses an algorithm to find words that are commonly used on Twitter. It then takes these words and creates sentences that sound just like something a person would say. Pretty clever, right?

One person who found this idea interesting is Randi Harper, a DevOps engineer. She was tired of getting harassed by GamerGate supporters on Twitter, so she created a bot of her own. This bot would randomly choose phrases from her own tweets and use them to respond to her harassers. Talk about turning the tables!

3. Monitoring Censors

When MH17 got shot down, a lot of people blamed the Ukrainian pro-separatist group and the Russians.

My doubts started growing when I learned about the conversations between their leaders. But you wanna know what really convinced me that something was fishy? It was when I found out that the Russian government was editing Wikipedia, thanks to a Twitter bot called @RuGovEdits.

This bot does its thing by keeping an eye on the changes made to Wikipedia articles from Russian government IP addresses. It’s not the first bot of its kind, though. The US has one called @congressedits, and the UK has @parliamentedits.

All these bots have a common goal: to keep tabs on the government and show them that we’re watching.

4. Create Poetry

Isn’t it amazing how Twitter users are finding ways to be creative within the 140 character limit? They’re writing short stories and poetry, even playing with different poetic structures like iambic pentameter and haiku. But it’s not just humans getting in on the fun – there are bots out there, too.

One such bot is @pentametron, which uses algorithms to search for tweets that accidentally conform to iambic pentameter, the rhythm often used in traditional poetry. Another bot finds tweets that unintentionally match the structure of haiku.

5. Generate Art

But poetry isn’t the only thing these bots can do. Some of them have algorithms that can transform any image you tweet at them into a piece of artwork. Pretty cool, huh?

For example, check out @a_quilt_bot, which turns your images into quilt-like creations. It might not be an exact replica of your photo, but it’s certainly a unique and interesting interpretation.

Sometimes, the different bots interact with each other, either through programming or through direct manipulation from their creators. I remember one incident where two bots, @pixelsorter and @badpng, were pitted against each other. It was quite a spectacle to see them continuously mesh the images back and forth. The exchange seemed endless until their creator finally stepped in to stop it.

On another note, the internet could definitely benefit from more of these bots. There are so many grammar and spelling mistakes that happen online, and it can be quite frustrating. Thankfully, these bots come to the rescue by correcting those errors. One example is the now defunct @StealthMountain, which would tweet back at people who misspelled the phrase “sneak peek.” It was both helpful and irritating for those offenders.

Some bots are simpler but still interesting. Take, for instance, the popular @everyword bot. It tweets out a word from the dictionary every day. It may not seem like much, but it’s a fun and informative way to expand your vocabulary.

I can’t help but wonder why this is the end of the road.

Just like the Wave Glider Holoholo, these bots are really interactive. One prime example is @DearAssistant, who can answer any questions you throw at it.

The creator of this bot considers it a “mini version of Siri” because it relies on the same data source.

There are also other bots that are less complex and only respond to specific catchphrases or keywords. For example, @Betelgeuse_3 will respond if you mention Beetlejuice three times, and @DBZNappa will tweet back “WHAT?! NINE THOUSAND?!” whenever someone tweets “over 9000.”

On the other hand, @RedScareBot responds to any tweet with the words “socialist” or “communist,” in the spirit of Joseph McCarthy and his politics.

Have you encountered any other fascinating Twitter bots? Share your findings in the comments below!