Jail threats stop AI ‘robot lawyer’ from making its debut in court
Mariella Moon·Contributing ReporterWed, January 25, 2023, 10:30 PM PST·3 min read
Joshua Browder, the CEO of New York startup DoNotPay, recently announced that his company's bot will represent a defendant fighting a traffic ticket in the courtroom on February 22nd. "DoNotPay A.I will whisper in someone's ear exactly what to say. We will release the results and share more after it happens," he said. We may never know how the "robot lawyer" will fare in court, though, because a few days later, Browder announced that DoNotPay is postponing its court case after reportedly receiving jail threats from state bar prosecutors if he was to go through with his plan.
The CEO told NPR that multiple state bar associations had threatened his company, and one even said he could be imprisoned for six months. He told the media organization: "Even if it wouldn't happen, the threat of criminal charges was enough to give it up. The letters have become so frequent that we thought it was just a distraction and that we should move on." While the State Bar of California refused to talk about DoNoPay's situation, it told NPR that it has a duty to investigate potential instances of unauthorized law practice. ...
A defendant using the technology in court would have worn smart glasses to record the court proceedings, as well as a headset that would give the AI a way to tell them what to say. ...
As CBS News said in a previous report, though, the tech isn't legal in most courtrooms. Also, in some states, all parties must consent to being recorded. ...
See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jail-threats-ai-robot-lawyer-court-case-063006308.html