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Recent advances in AI are sending tremors through the tech industry. But as we’ve learned, this technology is also pretty unreliable: bots can’t write compelling articles, and conversational AI just can’t stop lying. Well, obviously, these are the perfect qualities for a lawyer.
DoNotPay, a company that helps people cancel subscriptions and request refunds using AI, is building an AI bot that listens to court hearings and provides answers to defendants through a pair of AirPods. The robot lawyer will debut next month at a speeding ticket hearing. (Previously, DoNotPay launched an AI that drafts legal contracts and disputes parking tickets.)
DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder says robot lawyers could provide low-cost legal assistance to low-income families. It is certainly an interesting idea; What USA Today notes, the American Bar Association states that about 80% of low-income people cannot afford legal help.
Anyone with a speeding ticket hearing coming up please PM me.
We want to build a @Does not pay bot that listens to the court hearing through its AirPods and whispers what to say with GPT-3 and LLM.
We just want to experience and we will pay for the ticket, even if you lose!
— Joshua Browder (@jbrowder1) December 13, 2022
But electronic devices (especially recording devices) are prohibited in most courtrooms. This scheme is legally dubious at best, which is why DoNotPay vetted 300 applicants to find someone with a hearing in a relatively laid-back county. The company is also keeping the time and location of this experiment secret to avoid rejection by state bar associations.
This experiment could go wrong, obviously. Conversational AI is still pretty stupid, and more importantly, we don’t have any legal precedent guiding the use of “robot lawyers.” If the court believes this is illegal or obstructive, this speeding ticket could turn into something much more serious.
And against all logic, DoNotPay is offering $1 million to anyone willing to use AI in a US Supreme Court hearing. Electronic devices are banned in the Supreme Court: You can use assistive listening devices, but only if they meet certain specifications. (And while I hate to make assumptions, the Supreme Court probably isn’t amused by this sort of thing.)
Regardless, DoNotPay’s AI attorney will be addressing the court sometime in February. We’ll see how things go next month, assuming the bar doesn’t shut down this experiment.
Source: CBS, USA Today
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