“Sue everyone,” promises the website of the New York start-up DoNotPay. The Brit Joshua Browder has chosen the obvious passion of Americans to argue in court as a business model. Shortly after arriving in the States, he received his first tickets, which he felt were unjustified, and took the matter to court. That gave the impetus for his company, he recalls in an advertising video. What a lawyer can do, an AI can do for a long time, he apparently thought, and first launched a website and then an app that supports the plaintiffs in a large number of cases – primarily trifles such as cancellations of subscriptions.
The Internet is full of hot IT news and stale Pr0n. In between there are always gems that are too good for /dev/null.
Now Browder wanted to ignite the next level, reports the US National Public Radio, and thereby made dangerous enemies. The idea: the plaintiff against a ticket should wear smart glasses in the courtroom, which should use word recognition to record the course of the court hearing and, thanks to artificial intelligence, whisper suitable answers into the plaintiff’s ear.
ChatGPT becomes a lawyer
The text AI ChatGPT and DaVinci should be honored before “Your Honour” itself. The premiere was scheduled for February 22 in a California court. Browder argues that in the land of opportunity, not everyone can afford a lawyer. His app and the AI are a cheaper alternative.
But the Briton had not reckoned with the bar associations. They don’t need AI to sue, and they certainly don’t want to be replaced by lawsuit robots themselves. So they threatened Browder with lawsuits. The traffic ticket AI is in some US states an illegal practice of the legal profession. This carries a prison sentence of up to six months.
AIs have to stay outside
The DoNotPay app apparently had no answer to these threats either. Browder canceled his AI’s visit to court for the time being to avoid potential trouble. Mockers say that the lawsuit robot was nothing more than a PR stunt from the start. Finally, there would still have been the regulations of many courts that do not allow audio-visual recordings of the trials. The following applies here anyway: AIs have to stay outside. For the time being, court cases continue to make people out among themselves.
(mki)
