Got a bullshit parking ticket? Now you can appeal it
in less than a minute. The new chatbot tool, DoNotPay, uses previously
successful appeal letters to draw up a customized template, allowing users to
avoid courts, legal fees, stress, and having to use a lawyer.
So far, the free app has overturned 160,000 parking
tickets in London and New York. With a success rate of 64%, DoNotPay has
appealed $4 million in parking fines in just two cities in only nine months of
operation. In 2014, New York City collected $546 million in revenue from
parking tickets.
Stanford freshman Joshua Bowder created the app after
spending an exorbitant amount of time crafting his own appeals for parking
tickets. He read thousands of pages of documents related to parking tickets released
under the Freedom of Information Act and consulted a traffic lawyer. Then,
using PHP and Javascript, he created a conversation algorithm that aggregates
keywords, pronouns, and word order. Like many chatbots, Browder’s app becomes
more intelligent each time it is used.
DoNotPay is not commercial and Josh plans to keep it
that way. In an interview with Anti-Media, Josh said he was driven by a sense
of social justice and a desire to help vulnerable people who are exploited by
policing-for-profit schemes. Josh also wants to use technology like artificial
intelligence for humanitarian purposes.
He finds it “irritating and disappointing”
that bots are usually created for vapid commercial uses. In reality, he says,
algorithmic intelligence and chatbots are a “humanitarian goldmine.”
DoNotPay also assists with delayed or canceled
flights, payment-protection insurance (PPI) claims, and even legally disclosing
an HIV-positive health status.
Josh describes his creation as “the first robot
lawyer.” People are describing him as the “Robin Hood of the Internet.”
“If it is one day possible for any citizen to get
the same standard of legal representation as a billionaire,” Browder says, “how
can that not be a good thing?”
DoNotPay is not commercial and Josh plans to keep it
that way. In an interview with Anti-Media, Josh said he was driven by a sense
of social justice and a desire to help vulnerable people who are exploited by
policing-for-profit schemes. Josh also wants to use technology like artificial
intelligence for humanitarian purposes.
He finds it “irritating and disappointing” that bots
are usually created for vapid commercial uses. In reality, he says, algorithmic
intelligence and chatbots are a “humanitarian goldmine.”
DoNotPay also assists with delayed or canceled
flights, payment-protection insurance (PPI) claims, and even legally disclosing
an HIV-positive health status.
Josh describes his creation as “the first robot
lawyer.” People are describing him as the “Robin Hood of the Internet.”
“If it is one day possible for any citizen to get the
same standard of legal representation as a billionaire,” Browder says, “how can
that not be a good thing?”
Source :
Theantimedia.org