Chapter 09 · Sustainability & AISustainability & AI
Chatbot
Definition
Software that conducts conversation with users in natural language, ranging from rule-based scripts to systems built on large language models.
References
This source provides part of the technical or institutional basis for the definition.
This source supports the explanation of how the term is applied, measured or governed in practice.
Overview
What it means
The archetype is Weizenbaum's ELIZA (1966), which mimicked a therapist with simple pattern matching and revealed how readily people attribute understanding to machines. Modern chatbots use generative language models, producing fluent but not necessarily accurate answers.
How it is used
Organisations deploy chatbots as interfaces to sustainability information: answering customer questions about product footprints, guiding staff through reporting requirements, or triaging supplier queries. Their fluency makes accuracy controls essential.
Why it matters
Chatbots are often the only part of an AI system a user meets. When they speak for a company's environmental record, hallucinated or overstated answers become the company's claims — a reputational and increasingly regulatory exposure.