The "world's first robot lawyer" created by a British teenager has overturned a staggering 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York, saving those fined about three million pounds. The chat bot designed to help people dispute parking violations in just 30 seconds has negated 160,000 fines since its launch last year.
'DoNotPay' is the brainchild of 19-year-old Joshua Browder, originally from London. Browder, who is currently in his second year at Stanford University, describes the chat bot as "the world's first robot lawyer".
The chat bot, which is free to use, took Browder three months to create between school and university. "It was a huge challenge," he was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. He watched hours of YouTube tutorials and spoke to machine learning experts to create the intelligent bot that could understand human messages.
Browder initially designed the DoNotPay bot as a "pet project" for family and friends after being issued with 30 parking tickets. But after it gained traction in London he made it available across the UK and New York, with Seattle to follow soon.
"It's really difficult as every city has different laws. The US parking authorities are less likely to dismiss tickets.In the UK they're a lot more fair," he said.
The bot asks a series of questions designed to work out if a ticket can be appealed, including whether there were clear parking restriction signs or if the driver was traveling to hospital urgently. After determining that an appeal is viable, it then walks the user through the steps of
appeal.
It is currently only available through the DoNotPay website, but Browder is in talks with Facebook to incorporate it in the Messenger app. Over 250,000 people have used the service so far, according to Browder.
Of the 2.9 million pounds worth of tickets overturned, about 150,000 were in London. In the UK around 10 million parking tickets are issued a year, generating millions of pounds in revenue for local councils.
DoNotPay's service also has a selection of pictures of unclear or confusing road markings taken from Google Maps to help motorists with relevant claims.
Browder plans to expand the artificial intelligence lawyer, which can also work out compensation for delayed flights, to help vulnerable groups navigate complicated legal systems, including people who are HIV positive and refugees in foreign countries.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)