Do AIs get severance? Asking for a robot friend

The plan sounded like an Ocean’s Eleven heist: send a guy fighting a speeding ticket into court with an earpiece that would secretly record audio of the trial, passing it along to an AI chatbot. The bot would then dictate responses into the defendant’s ear for him to repeat in open court.

Well, at least that was the plan that Joshua Browder, CEO of legal chatbot startup DoNotPay, concocted a few weeks ago. But after several state bar associations threatened legal action, Browder ultimately decided against the idea on Wednesday (and then probably fired off some angry emails with the subject line “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH”).

• Some states require that all parties consent to be recorded, which rules out the possibility of a robot lawyer entering many courtrooms.
• Of the 300 cases DoNotPay considered for a trial of its robot lawyer, only two were feasible, CBS reports.

⚖️🤖 Zoom out: AI chatbots aren’t the only bit of emerging tech in the legal spotlight. Earlier this week, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a probe into Madison Square Garden’s reported use of facial recognition technology to prevent lawyers employed at firms involved in MSG-related cases from entering the venue for events.