I recently discussed, with a pair of colleagues, whether AI would liberate humanity or enslave it.
It was, in my estimation, an illuminating discussion that opened the door for further similar conversations in the future. The general consensus we reached, from my perspective, was that AI technology has the potential to do either, depending on how it’s applied.
To add more context to the ongoing discussion, let’s talk about an exciting new app designed to benefit Team Human: DoNotPay.
But before exploring DoNotPay, what it does, and how it potentially benefits the average person, though, allow me to set up a bit of background based on personal experience.
In 2009, I received an electronic traffic citation in the mail – not in Florida, where the infraction occurred, but at my home in Georgia. The agents of state had mounted traffic cameras above the roadway to catch a perpetrator’s license plate in the commission of some transgression, and then automatically generate and mail a ticket.
There was no human touch required – just pure, streamlined revenue generation for the state. The government then used some of the fine money it collected from me, presumably, to devise more technology-assisted revenue generation schemes.
I realized then that the government’s capacity to enrich itself through the enforcement of draconian traffic laws and other petty means would increase exponentially in the coming years.
These technologies – called “red light cameras” – have proliferated in the United States and elsewhere.
There are tons of other examples of government adoption of AI/surveillance technology to further trample on what remains of our once-robust civil liberties in the West, and I write about them all the time.
But the individual also increasingly has tools at his disposal, and those have also proliferated as AI develops.
Which brings us back to DoNotPay, an innovative new app marketed by its proprietors as “the world’s first robot lawyer.”
Its stated mission is as follows:
“DoNotPay utilizes artificial intelligence to help consumers fight against large corporations and solve their problems like beating parking tickets, appealing bank fees, and suing robocallers.
DoNotPay’s goal is to level the playing field and make legal information and self-help accessible to everyone.”
Most of us, save for the fortunate sons of Senators, have some degree of experience navigating the labyrinthine US legal system. If you do, you know that hiring a high-quality lawyer is often prohibitively expensive as a member of the working, or even the middle, class.
Charged with a criminal offense, that means you’ll end up stuck with an overworked, probably jaded, public defense attorney with a hundred cases on his hands at any given time.
That’s where DoNotPay comes into play: it will serve as your digital attorney, powered by artificial intelligence. So far, it’s only used for minor traffic offenses, but the company may expand its application to more serious proceedings as the technology is refined.
As relayed by its CEO, DoNotPay reviews case law related to your charge, as well as the evidence regarding the charge itself, and then develops a unique defense. He boasts of a 65% success rate (meaning a ruling of not guilty or dismissal of charges) with the app, although I could not independently confirm that statistic.
The app is also innovating various other services in the same vein of fighting (often unfair and predatory) bureaucracy not just in the public sector but against private corporations as well.
Is DoNotPay an example of the glorious, self-empowering future that AI proponents herald? That remains to be seen, but there is, it appears, good reason for hope.
