Bots have become increasingly prevalent in the digital sphere and have taken up a proactive role in shaping democratic processes. While previous studies have focused on their influence at the individual level, their potential macro-level impact on communication dynamics is still little understood. This study adopts an information theoretic approach from dynamical systems theory to examine the role of political bots shaping the dynamics of an online political discussion on Twitter. We quantify the components of this dynamic process in terms of its complexity, predictability, and the remaining uncertainty. Our findings suggest that bot activity is associated with increased complexity and uncertainty in the structural dynamics of online political communication. This work serves as a showcase for the use of information-theoretic measures from dynamical systems theory in modeling human-bot dynamics as a computational process that unfolds over time.

翻译：机器人账户在数字领域日益普遍，并在塑造民主进程中扮演着积极主动的角色。以往研究多关注其在个体层面的影响，而其对传播动态的宏观潜在影响仍鲜为人知。本研究采用动力学系统理论中的信息论方法，考察政治机器人账户如何塑造Twitter平台在线政治讨论的动态过程。我们将这一动态过程的组成部分量化为复杂度、可预测性及剩余不确定性。研究结果表明，机器人活动与在线政治传播结构动态中复杂度和不确定性的增加相关。本工作展示了如何运用动力学系统理论中的信息论度量，将人机交互动态建模为随时间展开的计算过程。