Developer of AI lawyer threatened with prison

DoNotPay has decided not to use the robot lawyer in the upcoming court proceeding due to pressure from bar associations. NPR reports.

According to DoNotPay’s chief executive Joshua Browder, state bar associations threatened his company. One even said that the owner of DoNotPay could be jailed for six months.

Good morning! Bad news: after receiving threats from State Bar prosecutors, it seems likely they will put me in jail for 6 months if I follow through with bringing a robot lawyer into a physical courtroom. DoNotPay is postponing our court case and sticking to consumer rights:

— Joshua Browder (@jbrowder1) January 25, 2023

«Even if that hadn’t happened, the threats of criminal prosecution were enough to deter us from doing this. The letters began arriving so frequently that we simply treated it as a distraction and decided to move on,” he said.

The California State Bar Association refused to comment on DoNoPay’s situation. However, the body said it was obliged to investigate possible instances of unauthorized practice of law.

In February 2023, DoNotPay planned to use an AI lawyer in court to challenge a client’s speeding ticket. According to Browder, the algorithm would \”listen to\” the case and generate responses using the GPT-3 language model. After that, the client would receive AI-lawyer advice via AirPods and repeat it before the judge.

The use of electronic devices is prohibited in most U.S. courtrooms. However, Browder found a loophole allowing clients to wear AirPods during hearings. According to him, the headset is permitted as an assistive device for people with hearing impairments.

He also noted that the court would not learn of the defendant’s use of AI-generated prompts.

According to Browder, the company will continue helping clients reduce medical bills, cancel subscriptions, and dispute credit reports with the help of AI.

«The truth is that most people cannot afford lawyers. This would shift the balance and allow them to use tools like ChatGPT in the courtroom to win cases,” Browder says.

In January, the DoNotPay director offered $1 million to the lawyer, who would use the company’s AI assistant in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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