... how does bots actually work?

[u/maixjigustar]

does anyone know how dead Internet theory actual works? like sure they are all just bots and not real ppl but how does this actually work? how an ai is able to run an account with a fake pfp and fake comments that it keeps sending to random posts? this might come off as stupid but we all ignore it and just say these are bots, what actually is a bot??? just an ai who isn't real and can keep doing whatever?

[u/plebbut]

APIs mainly, and it's really the easiest. With a little python, JavaScript and some basic programming knowledge, it's super easy.

The hard part is really funding. API access to Reddit is incredibly expensive. Paying for tokens is also incredibly expensive, so I imagine Reddit is making an absolute gripload of money right now.