Artificial Intelligence is making significant advances, and one of its more worrying manifestations is the computer bot. We\'ve seen the little guys on the screen that look like mechanical spiders, scuttling around and sticking their data probes where they\'re not wanted, but real life bots are much more worrying. Aside from fake news bots, which are programmed to talk twaddle, or to generate political followers for leaders who tweet too much, there are also bots which can like or dislike world personalities, activities, artefacts, well, virtually everything.

For the cryptocurrency world, some bots can be programmed to identify market trends and make sales or purchases automatically. On the bad side, bots can be used for scamming, by closing off withdrawal facilities and scarpering, while others are intent on manipulating the market by automatic postings on social media. It is important to remember that a bot has to be programmed, and if it says you can just install it and leave it to make money for you, then it\'s likely to be a scam.

Spotting a bot on social media can be relatively easy at the moment. If a particular altcoin, for example, has no identifying logo, location or website, then chances are it doesn\'t belong to any legitimate entity, while social commentators with cartoon faces are equally likely to be fake.