Chatbot Asylum Filings

DoNotPay is a chatbot, defined by google as “a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.”

This particular chatbot was created by a London-born Stanford student named Joshua Browder who was just 19 when the bot premiered. As the Guardian reports, the bot was tremendously successful in its initial endeavor – fighting parking tickets:

In the 21 months since the free service was launched in London and now New York, Browder says DoNotPay has taken on 250,000 cases and won 160,000, giving it a success rate of 64% appealing over $4m of parking tickets.

Browder thereafter expanded his program to assist folks with flight delay compensation, help the HIV positive understand their legal rights, and assist vulnerable people apply for emergency housing.

It’s now expanding further – to asylum claims.

Using Facebook Messenger, the chatbot aims to help asylees complete immigration application forms in the US and Canada and, in the UK, it will help them apply for asylum support.

Here’s how The Guardian explains Browder’s program:

The chatbot works by asking the user a series of questions, in order to determine which application the refugee needs to fill out and whether a refugee is eligible for asylum protection under international law.

After this, it takes down the necessary details required for the appropriate asylum application – an I-589 for the United States or a Canadian Asylum Application for Canada. Those in the UK are told they need to apply in person, and the bot helps fill out an ASF1 form for asylum support.

Browder says it was crucial the questions were in plain English. “The language in these forms can be quite complicated,” he said.

These details are used to auto-fill an application form for either the US, Canada or the UK. “Once the form is sent off, the details are deleted from my end,” said Browder.

And, that’s it.

Immprofs reading this may be aghast. You know how hard it is, how many hours of interviewing it takes, to get a client to open up about persecution. You know how hard it can be to make sure that any application presented is coherent, accurate, and actionable.

On the other hand, many, many asylum seekers in the US are unrepresented. Perhaps this will be a positive step towards aiding those who would otherwise be completing paperwork entirely on their own.

One thing is certain. The DoNotPay robot lawyer is unlikely to be subject to Lozada.

-KitJ