> If a researcher can determine that a tweet came from a bot

That condition is the key. Are you sure they can do that? It’s very tough to do with certainty.

Bots can be used for many purposes. Many (maybe most?) are constructive. There have been a number of DIY tutorial for beginners about how to use Arduino or Raspberry Pi to let plants tweet when they need water. Here’s one (old) example: https://www.wired.com/2008/02/houseplants-wil/.

I'd like to know what "bot" means. Is it the new word for internet troll or do these Twitter accounts really have better AI than Microsoft or Facebook.