How do the "type in chat to control the game" livestreams work?

[Petzbreeder]

I occasionally watch Pokemon livestreams on Youtube and Twitch, where the viewers can affect the game by typing the controls in the chat window.

How does that work?

[Del]

So typically the person running the stream will have created a bot that runs locally, connected to the game/emulator being run that reads chat and looks for specific inputs words or letter (for example "a" or "start" or "up"), and every time it reads "a", it will send the input that activates the "A" button on the game/emulator being used.

The same applies for other inputs. "start" = start button, "up" = up arrow, etc.

[Petzbreeder]

That is pretty cool.

I wonder if it is possible to make a program/bot that plays and completes the Pokemon games by itself!
Now, that would be pretty cool!

[Del]

I think theoretically it's possible, but I'm not sure.

There's a pretty interesting video about machine learning teaching a program to beat a level of Super Mario, but there are much simpler win and lose conditions in a game like Mario than in Pokemon.

It could probably be done in a few years though.