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Chatbot that Overturned 160,000 Parking Fines Now Helping Refugees Claim Asylum (theguardian.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Elena Cresci, writing for The Guardian: The creator of a chatbot which overturned more than 160,000 parking fines and helped vulnerable people apply for emergency housing is now turning the bot to helping refugees claim asylum. The original DoNotPay, created by Stanford student Joshua Browder, describes itself as "the world's first robot lawyer", giving free legal aid to users through a simple-to-use chat interface. The chatbot, using Facebook Messenger, can now help refugees fill in an immigration application in the US and Canada. For those in the UK, it helps them apply for asylum support. The London-born developer worked with lawyers in each country, as well as speaking to asylum seekers whose applications have been successful. Browder says this new functionality for his robot lawyer is "long overdue". He told the Guardian: "I've been trying to launch this for about six months -- I initially wanted to do it in the summer. But I wanted to make sure I got it right because it's such a complicated issue. I kept showing it to lawyers throughout the process and I'd go back and tweak it.

4 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Overturned 160,000 parking fines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Evidence please? And not "it's been used 160,000 times".

    Also if you think the asylum process is as simple as appealing a parking fine, you're fucking high. This guy appears to have more hubris than experience, and it reminds me of the $1 laptop programmes where somehow people without shelter and electricity and maintenance shops were somehow going to benefit from Wikipedia to tell them how to re-build the civilisation that the same cultures that delivered their laptop had destroyed.

    1. Re:Overturned 160,000 parking fines? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Informative

      Evidence please? And not "it's been used 160,000 times".

      A simple search in /. for "chatbot parking" turned up this previous article, which indicated that it successfully challenged 160,000 out of 250,000 tickets. So, no, not "it's been used 160,000 times". This is a "it's won 160,000 times". And that was as of June of last year. This NPR piece from earlier this year indicates that its up to 200,000 successful cases now in just three cities, and that its overall success rate with parking tickets stands at around 60%.

  2. Re:"Are you in danger" by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

    Asylum applicants without attorneys are four times as likely to be rejected, so knowing the process is important. People that represent themselves tend to talk about how much they like and appreciate America/Canada/UK, that they are grateful for the opportunities, and how they are working hard to contribute. In an asylum hearing, that is pretty much the opposite of what you should say.

  3. Re:The Muslim Threat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Please mod this up.