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I hadn't heard that there were plans to have an AI help someone defend themselves in court until I read this article, and I thought it was interesting that it didn't seem to gain much traction until the creator was threatened with jail if he went through with it.
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I really like this idea, actually, since lawyers can be expensive and free public defenders can vary in quality.
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That being said, I wonder if this AI won't suffer the same problems that other trained AI have faced, i.e. picking up biases inherent on the Internet (upon which I assume it was trained). If we can work that out though, I don't see how this can't be a very feasible way for people to help themselves defend against minor crimes, such as the traffic ticket DoNotPay's AI was initially supposed to defend against. Perhaps not with very high profile cases though, at least for now.
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Also, this AI is completely contained within a smartphone and tells the defendant what to say through a Bluetooth earpiece. That is so much more convenient than having to go through the process of hiring a lawyer, even if they had the money to do so.
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I imagine the backlash DoNotPay faced is also largely because of concerns lawyers have of it potentially taking their jobs (given how quickly they threatened to send the CEO to jail), but I don't think that will be a possibility for a while yet. There was a recent Atlantic article I saw (unfortunately behind a paywall) about AI taking over white collar jobs, so it looks like this is a small step towards that maybe becoming a reality.
DoNotPay showcases the potential for artificial intelligence and machine learning to be applied in new and innovative ways to solve real-world problems. It's amazing to think about the impact such technology can have on the legal industry, and the fact that it is accessible to people in need of legal assistance makes it even more impressive. It's exciting to see the intersection of computer science and law, and I'm eager to see what other advancements in this field will emerge in the future.
DoNotPay's antics in this case have brought both positive and negative coverage to the field. DoNotPay's solution of AI lawyering could have significant social impact – bringing equity to a field often wrought with injustice. The classic example of the overworked public defender covering hundreds of cases versus the well funded prosecutors, encuffing harsher punishments on the already economically downtroden. It would be landmark for them to engage in a real trial and come out successful. However, the twitter stunt the founder pulled was effectively taunting this kind of response from legislators. I'm still hopeful for the future of this technology, but this was surely a setback for the timeline.