Refugees struggling with asylum applications can now use a chatbot to get free legal aid in the US, Canada and the UK.
DoNotPay, created by London-born Stanford student Joshua Browder, started out as an artificial-intelligence lawyer helping with parking tickets and delayed flights.
After success in those areas -- it overturned more than 160,000 parking fines across London and New York for free -- lawyers and nonprofits reached out saying that the idea of automated legal services cold be extended to help refugees stranded in these countries.
"I hope it will allow anyone to have a right to safety, regardless of the ability to afford a lawyer," Browder, 20, told Mashable.
Credit: Joshua BrowderThe chatbot works by asking users a series of questions to determine if they're eligible for asylum protection under international law, such as: "Are you afraid of being subjected to torture in your home country?"
Once the asylum claim is settled, it takes down details and automatically fills in a completed immigration application -- an I-589 for the United States, Canadian Asylum Application or an ASF1/application for the UK.
"Crucially, all the questions that the bot asks are in plain English and A.I. generated feedback appears during the conversation. For example, the best answer for your situation will include a description when the mistreatment started in your home country," Browder said.
Credit: joshua browderRefugees will also receive location specific submission instructions, details of additional documentation needed and resources for even more help.
In order to give free legal aid, DoNotPay relies on Facebook Messenger, which is not automatically end-to-end encrypted, as it is "the most accessible platform and the most appropriate to launch with".
"All data is deleted from my server after ten minutes and it is possible to wipe your data from Facebook Messenger," he said, acknowledging that privacy is a "very important issue and it's important to be upfront with users".
For the next steps, Browder wants to launch a dozen of new service including those related to pensions, benefits and bail.
"So many lawyers are charging hundreds of pounds simply for copying and pasting documents, so I hope to one day replace them."
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