A California law went into effect July 1 banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure while selling products or influencing votes (Noam Cohen/New Yorker)

Noam Cohen / New Yorker:
A California law went into effect July 1 banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure while selling products or influencing votes  —  When you ask experts how bots influence politics—that is, what specifically these bits of computer code that purport to be human …