Parking Ticket Chatbot Now Helps Refugees Claim Asylum A Facebook Messenger conversation could help you start a new life.
By Jon Fingas
This story originally appeared on Engadget
Joshua Browder's chat bot lawyer, DoNotPay, is clearly multi-talented -- after getting people out of parking fines, it's now helping refugees find a home in a new country. Browder has adapted the AI to offer aid to asylum seekers in the U.S. and Canada, and asylum support in the U.K. The Facebook Messenger bot turns the asylum application process into a series of simple questions. Once you've finished, you'll have a filled form ready to go. Refugees in the U.K. still have to apply in person, but those in the U.S. and Canada are largely set once they've finished the conversation.
DoNotPay will automatically delete information within 10 minutes of completing a transaction, so it won't store sensitive data after the fact.
This isn't a complete solution. Browder still wants to translate the bot into other languages (Arabic is next in line), and it's not going to help much if there are problems with an asylum case. The developer would also like to support WhatsApp in the future. Even so, this could be a big help for refugees who might have trouble deciphering a form, or can't easily make it to a location where they'll get assistance. And Browder believes that even this initial version is particularly useful in the current political climate, where refugees might have to make a sudden change of plans.
