The world's first robot lawyer, a chatbot known as DoNotPay, was created by a student at Stanford back in 2015--Joshua Browder. And since being launched years ago, it has already helped hundreds of thousands of people to get out of their parking tickets in the US and elsewhere.
It's been able to help turn over millions of dollars in parking fines and it's also helped people to try and resolve issues related to things like canceled or delayed flights, arguments over security deposits and rental repairs, and other financial claims.
The bot isn't able to argue any case in court though, and it's also not licensed to be practicing law in a courtroom and for this reason critics say that it's not really a lawyer. Though, it can and has helped to save its users quite a bit of money. It's also a free service for the users.
In two years, it's helped to turn over roughly 375,000 parking tickets.
The creator behind the project has said that he sees many uses for this technology in that there is plenty of information that could be automated, within the legal industry, using AI and his bot design he believes is the perfect tool to try and do that.
The bot is able to draft letters for the users that provide them with advice on their issues that they might be facing. And it can potentially provide them with a variety of options that are available to them.
This can be a tremendous benefit to many people who can't afford the hundreds or thousands of dollars it might end up costing them, to visit with a lawyer to try and get some basic information relating to their issue. The free chatbot is better than nothing, for many who might have no other option. And given its success thus far with overturning tickets for so many, we shouldn't be surprised that a growing number have turned to using this platform.
The program has already proven effective in various places and so now it will be expanded and Browder says that includes multiple cities across Canada.
The first four locations that they are going to experiment with are Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto.
Pics:
PSFK via psfk.com/2016/07/a-chatbot-lawyer-can-help-you-overturn-parking-tickets.html
Pixabay
Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/robot-lawyer-chatbot-2017-7
http://www.iflscience.com/technology/worlds-first-robot-lawyer-helps-160000-people-void-their-parking-tickets/
https://qz.com/1028627/motion-to-dismiss-claims-the-worlds-first-robot-lawyer-is-a-damn-lawyer-by-a-damn-lawyer/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/07/13/british-students-free-robot-lawyer-can-fight-speeding-tickets/
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/12/15960080/chatbot-ai-legal-donotpay-us-uk
http://vancouversun.com/business/local-business/entrepreneur-launches-robot-lawyer-chatbot-in-four-canadian-cities