When it comes to how AI will change our lives, the party is just getting started. As this technology begins to make inroads into new areas, it will hit one obstacle again and again: lawyers. An AI-based system designed to provide live legal advice when contesting a traffic stop was blocked from its first court appearance when its creators backed out in the face of legal threats from human lawyers.

Joshua Browder is the developer of DoNotPay (no wonder he pisses off lawyers), and as reported by NPR (opens in new tab), the AI system's first scheduled use was in a trial in California on February 22. According to Browder, legal threats of prosecution and even imprisonment from the California attorney general have now forced him to abandon the attempt.

The DoNotPay system is designed to (among other things) help people effectively contest traffic tickets without having to pay a lawyer, and generates legal arguments for users through AI text generators, including ChatGPT and DaVinci The science fiction element lies in the delivery method: the user wears smart glasses that record the court proceedings and dictates suggested answers in his or her ear through a directed speaker.

According to Browder, when the February 22 trial date was announced, California bar association officials began sending him strongly worded letters (the bar association is the organization that licenses and regulates lawyers).

"Several state bar associations threatened us," Browder said, "One even told us that we would be referred to the district attorney's office and could be indicted and sentenced to jail time. Even if that didn't happen, the threat of criminal charges was enough to make us give it up."

"As the letters became more frequent, I knew [the case] was just a distraction and that we should move on."

Browder said that the threat of criminal charges was enough to make him decide to give it up.

Browder, perhaps wisely, refused to name the state attorney officials, adding that DoNotPay is currently under investigation by several state attorneys general, including California.

California Attorney General George Cardona issued a statement (opens in new tab) to NPR.

"We regularly inform potential violators that they may be prosecuted in civil or criminal court.

It probably didn't help that in addition to calling it DoNotPay, Browder describes the tool as a "robot lawyer"; DoNotPay was founded in 2015 and has raised tens of millions of dollars in seed funding. In the process, Browder has put forth various productions and claims about the technology (for example, an early version overturned 374,000 tickets by 2017 (opens in new tab): citation very much needed).

It seems deliberate that the company did not consider contacting state bar associations to at least explore issues such as whether AI needs a license to practice law in court, but doing what you want and waiting for regulators to catch up is now a fairly established strategy for tech startups. However, when lawyers become involved, it is not a very good strategy.

Browder said that for the time being, DoNotPay plans to move away from live assistance with traffic tickets and court cases to assistance with things like medical bills, unnecessary subscription fees, and disputes over issues with credit reporting agencies. This is hardly the same level of ambition as AI lawyers providing live coaching throughout a trial, which makes one wonder how this technology actually worked in court on February 22.

There are other factors besides professional regulation. While rules regarding courtroom recording vary widely from state to state and country to country, an AI such as DoNotPay would require input data, i.e., audio recordings, in such settings.

But whether it is Browder and DoNotPay or some other intervener, it seems certain that AI will continue to try to enter the legal profession. In fact, most people can't afford a lawyer." This could shift the balance and allow people to use tools like ChatGPT in court. Not if there are real lawyers involved, dear boy.