It may be a bot? Either one with a bug, or a way for the authors to kill some competition? The article doesn't say if the pizzas were ordered online or by phon

It may be a bot? Either one with a bug, or a way for the authors to kill some competition? The article doesn't say if the pizzas were ordered online or by phoning directly the shops. At the begining, the bot would not have been able to call, but I assume now it's possible to make bots smart enough to handle pizza orders. It may even be a nice way to train one.