The AI is at the heart of a free service called DoNotPay that was designed by London native Joshua Browder to help users contest parking fines. After racking up 30 parking tickets in and around London when he was 18, the self-taught coder decided to help his fellow parking-challenged motorists with a program that would help them navigate the ticket appeals process.
"I think the people getting parking tickets are the most vulnerable in society," Browder told The Guardian. "These people aren't looking to break the law. I think they're being exploited as a revenue source by the local government."
Called "The world's first robot lawyer", DoNotPay uses an easy chat-like interface to guide users through the typically formulaic and relatively straight-forward appeals process. Asking a series of questions such as whether or not there were clearly visible parking signs, the AI quickly works out the details and dispenses appropriate advice for free.
DoNotPay currently only works in London and New York, but in the 21 months since its roll-out the program has generated some amazing results. In those short months DoNotPay took on 250,000 cases and won 160,000 of them. It has saved motorists more than $4,000,000 in parking fines.
Browder has plans to deploy DoNotPay in Seattle next, as well as plans to expand the AI's capabilities. On the to-do list is train the program to help people with flight delay compensation, help people who are HIV-positive understand their rights, and help refugees navigate foreign legal systems.
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