I'm in the industry, nobody calls it an "algobot". It sounds ridiculous and doesn't really express much.

I'm guessing someone was winding up the reporter, as from reading the article it seems obvious the person is in over their head.

Reminds me of the (possibly apocryphal) story of how a bunch of teenagers made fun of a 20/20 reporter by describing a made up word "mosh pit", and then it caught on.