Featured in this episode of Chaos Lever
I just want to start by saying- I get it. The law is an impenetrable morass of precedent, etiquette, and random latin, that is borderline incomprehensible to the average person. Even something as banal as traffic court is still court, and it’s always better to have representation so you don’t, like, accidentally confess to a murder or something.
Joshua Browder, the CEO of consumer advocacy company DoNotPay has had it with this situation. The company has long had automated tools that help you with how to fight traffic tickets. Now they want to take the next step: AI in your ear, listening to the court proceedings, and literally telling you what to say and do in real time.
As you can imagine, this idea is not without its detractors. First of all, of the 300 traffic court cases DoNotPay looked at for this experiment, only 2 would even allow a 2-way bluetooth connection. Second, lawyers aren’t gonna like it. Third, this is a roll-your-own AI solution that’s being tested, and you know how we feel about rolling-your-own. [Ed - Don’t.]
On the bright side, Browder did note the many limitations stock ChatGPT has with the law, and, like, facts. So hopefully his company’s model is better. DoNotPay stated that they’re doing this for publicity, to help educate consumers, and hopefully inspire change. DoNotPay also said that if the AI bot loses, they would cover any fines. So that’s good at least.