Dial “B” for bot

A WITTY commercial for Adobe, the software firm, that aired last year showed a blissful team of executives and factory workers, who return to work when they think sales are up for their “Encyclopedia Atlantica”. It turns out that an adorable baby in nappies is repeatedly clicking “buy” on a computing tablet. Real-world companies share the imaginary encyclopedia publisher’s challenge of correctly sizing their audience, but are troubled by bots, not babies.