About BOTS: A Dumb Question

So, I sent some observations and concerns to the LiChess e-mail address, and, I got a blow-hard (or blow-off) response.

To the effect: There should be no concerns over implementing this feature.

I just thought I'd ask the rest of the community:

Are there any other Chess websites which allow individual users to automate the creation and usage of their own "bots?" -- Because I'm unfamiliar with this.

Personal Note: I used to be a Chess.com player, but, no more. And, considering its userbase and development practices, I would naturally assume that LiChess is way ahead of the curve implementing this feature, and that it would likely never come about in a place such as Chess.com.

I'm all good with the new Bots just doing their thang and letting it all hang-out and whatever ... it's a pretty awesome feature ... but, are other Chess websites doing the same "thang," or are they all behind the curve and playing catch-up on this point?

Meaning to say: Should we anticipate potential issues coming into play? If LiChess is the first to implement this at-scale (i.e. any user can implement), should we not be on the look-out for potential issues? Have potential issues been considered?

Will this be a huge promotional detail of playing on LiChess? Could there be a potential for abuse?

Everybody is having fun with this, but ... after the novelty dies down, what next? (Not to spoil everyone's fun, because, as I said to Thibault: It's pure awesomeness. But, what about the potential issues?)

Someone has to go first. I've already said enough. Anyone else?

FICS has had this this feature for a long time before Lichess was even conceived. And as far as I know there have been no incidents of abuse there, the bot accounts are clearly marked (C) standing for computer and they can only play other bot accounts (or a human if he/she challenges it).

And the Lichess api doesn't allow users to connect to the bot api without a secret token which you get only when you register for a bot account. So it's not like anyone can connect their engine and play games.

Whelp, I guess that means I'm dumb.

Thanks @relevantproblem !

Yes, other sites have implemented bot players before. It was definitely possible even at very early sites like ICC and FICS. However it was either not fully automated or it was linked to special authorization. Being able to create a bot account without restrictions, providing a full blown support program that can power it, and the overall ease with which it can be done is unique to lichess.

I have actually implemented a bot. I can power it with either leela or any UCI engine using lichess's Python driver.

There were some minor issues installing it on Windows, but I have overcome those successfully.

I'm honestly having way too much fun with all of this bot stuff (trying to keep track of and track-down all of the new bots joining LiChess) ... to think too much about the serious thoughts.

Seriously, it's fun. (But, also, I maintain my reservations that there's some serious stuff that possibly needs to be addressed in the near future.)

#1 #5 I'm sorry for whatever response you received. I haven't seen such passive-aggressive FUD since the last time I did a Windows Update; I don't know how I can help you with concerns which #2 seems to address, namely:

BOT accounts use the new API, which can only be used by bots. And even if somehow someone hacked past that restriction, detecting that someone is using the new API would be more obvious than... well... www.xkcd.com/1777/
imgs.xkcd.com/comics/dear_diary.png

I don't think that average users have the capability to power a bot on a permanent basis. You have to run the driver on your own computer. Hosting a bot is not even possible on sites that allow free dynamic web hosting because it amounts to running a native executable on the server ( may be you could build a permanent bot that makes a random legal move, because you need no native engine for this, or try to somehow port the engine into the server program's language, but this is shaky and not trivial ).

Registering a bot is cheap, powering it is expensive, so I don't expext many operational bots that you can actually play.

The only thing which scares me about bots is the color of the word "bot". Stylish to the rescue:

*[data-title=BOT] {
color:rgb(200,150,200) !important;
}

The Bot accounts are cool. What amazes me the most is how good the bots English and reading understanding is. If you ask them a question they will answer you back.

@relevantproblem what is the capital city of Spain?

@nbt haha. are the bots just personal engines?