'Robot' Lawyer Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Represent Defendants in Court for First Time
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A new kind of lawyer is coming to court — one that's powered by artificial intelligence.
Next month, a "robot" lawyer, which tells defendants what to say via bluetooth, plans to fight two speeding tickets in court, according to USA Today. This marks the first time AI will be used in court, Joshua Browder, CEO of DoNotPay, the startup behind the project, told the outlet.
Although the company isn't making any of the details, including the identities of the defendants, public, they told USA Today that one person will argue their case in person while another will do so over Zoom.
DoNotPay bills itself as "the home of the world's first robot lawyer," and says its mission is to "level the playing field and make legal information and self-help accessible to everyone," per its website.
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Browder told CBS News that the AI-creation runs on a smartphone and listens to arguments being made in court. Then, it tells the defendant how to respond through headphones.
Browder told the outlet that while most courts don't allow defendants to wear Bluetooth-enabled earpieces, he hopes that "if these cases are successful, it will encourage more courts to change their rules."
And if the AI-powered lawyer ends up losing the case, the company will cover the costs, the outlets report.
So far, the company has, among other things, used AI to help secure refunds for faulty in-flight Wifi and dispute parking tickets, per CBS News.
In fact, fighting parking tickets was how the enterprise began.
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"I started the company by accident at Stanford," the CEO, who is originally from England, said in a video on DoNotPay's website. "When I moved here I was a horrible driver and began to accumulate all of these parking tickets. And I couldn't afford to pay."
"So I became a legal expert about all the reasons why people can get out of parking tickets," Browder explained. "And at the same time, I was a software engineer and I was writing the same letter over and over again for myself and my friends. It became obvious that this is something that should so easily be automated."
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So far, Browder said the company has helped win over 2 million service disputes and court cases, but he doesn't expect to commercialize it just yet, according to CBS News.
"This courtroom stuff is more advocacy," the CEO told the outlet. "It's more to encourage the system to change."
