An AI chatbot is an interface around an AI model. The chat app collects your message, adds conversation history and instructions, sends that package to a model, and displays the model output as a reply.
In practice
Good chatbot products usually add more than the model itself. They may include system prompts, safety rules, retrieval from a knowledge base, tool access, memory, file handling, or human handoff.
What to watch
A chatbot only sees what the app sends into the request. If it lacks context, uses stale context, or receives confusing instructions, the answer can be incomplete or wrong.