This robot lawyer has gotten people out of 160,000 parking tickets — for free

Before our robot overlords enslave us, they are at least going to save us some cash on parking tickets. Or, at least, one is.

DoNotPay is a chatbot created by a 19-year-old Stanford University student named Joshua Browder, who calls his creation the "world's first robot lawyer." The artificial intelligence program, which is a free service, talks with users who want to contest parking tickets to determine whether their case stands a chance for appeal. If the facts are right, the robot lawyer guides them through the appeals process. So far, it has helped users appeal some 250,000 tickets, winning the case for 160,000, or almost two-thirds of the time.

Currently, DoNotPay is only available in New York City and London, but it will soon expand to Seattle, and perhaps to other legal services that can be delivered via app. "I think the people getting parking tickets are the most vulnerable in society," Browder said. "These people aren't looking to break the law. I think they're being exploited as a revenue source by the local government."

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