Robot Lawyer aims to make legal representation affordable

A new app aims to democratize the legal world through the power of artificial intelligence. Human lawyers tend to be pretty expensive, but it turns out robot lawyers are cheap.

The app, dubbed “DoNotPay,” is billed as “the world’s first robot lawyer.”

According to the app’s website, it uses “artificial intelligence to help consumers fight against big companies and solve their problems, like…

Here’s how it works, according to CBS News: The “AI creation runs on a smartphone, listening to court arguments and formulating answers for the defendant,” and the “AI attorney tells the defendant what to say in real time over headphones.” ”

According to CBS News, the app will be “the first of its kind to help a defendant fight a speeding ticket in court over the next month,” and the company behind the app says it has already “used AI-generated mail merges and chatbots to do so.” Help people get refunds for non-working in-flight WiFi, cut bills, and dispute parking tickets among other things.”

The “DoNotPay” app is another example of “generative artificial intelligence,” a technology that can generate text and other forms of content in response to human commands.

Generative AI has garnered considerable attention from investors since last month’s release of “ChatGPT,” a chatbot from San Francisco-based lab OpenAI that made waves with its music and stories.

The New York Times reported last week that more than a million people have used “ChatGPT” and that OpenAI “is in talks to complete a deal that would be valued at around $29 billion, more than double its assessment in 2021”.

CBS News reported that DoNotPay “raised $27.7 million from tech-focused venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Crew Capital.”

“Over the past year, AI technology has really evolved, allowing us to go back and forth with businesses and governments in real time,” DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder told CBS News. “We spoke live [with companies and customer service reps] to reduce corporate bills; and next month we are attempting to use the technology in a courtroom for the first time.”

The spread of artificial intelligence has rung many alarm bells. As Politico noted in an article about DoNotPay this week, “the release of increasingly advanced AI tools has raised questions about everything from high school plagiarism to the very nature of being human.”

And while many found chatbots fun, a robot lawyer might just be too scary for some.

It is also illegal in many jurisdictions.

“Some courts allow defendants to wear hearing aids, some versions of which are Bluetooth-enabled. This is how Browder determined that DoNotPay’s technology could be used legally in this case,” CBS News reported. “However, the technology is not legal in most courtrooms. Some states require all parties to consent to the recording, eliminating the possibility of a robot attorney entering many courtrooms. Of the 300 cases that DoNotPay considered for a trial against its robot lawyer, only two were viable.”

Browder told CBS that it’s “within the law, but I don’t think anyone ever imagined that happening.”

“It’s not in the spirit of the law but we’re trying to move things forward and a lot of people can’t afford legal counsel. If these cases are successful, more courts will be encouraged to change their rules,” Browder said.