@mmasnick@mastodon.socialSuper excited to be able to publish @kathryntewson's first Techdirt guest post... You do not want to miss this one.
"The World’s First Robot Lawyer Isn’t A Lawyer, And I’m Not Sure It’s Even A Robot"
@kathryntewson The post now has a short update after DoNotPay's CEO responded to Kathryn...
@mmasnick @kathryntewson excellent post :)
@mmasnick @kathryntewson I read her thread on this earlier but I'm excited to see her get more attention. She's a treasure, both knowledgeable and entertaining, a rare combo.
Also from the looks of it, she's going to need to use DoNotPay's breach of contract form again to complain about the lack of responsive documents after she paid the fee.
@mmasnick @kathryntewson I worked for a company (we mainly stuck to with business formation filings) that had been doing this for years by the time I was their second engineer in 2004.
In fact, back then we once met with a couple dudes named Brian, who decided to NOT just stick with biz fillings, and they convinced Robert Shapiro to take a check and lend his name as an endorsement, and they turned EXACTLY this idea into a little company I like to call LegalZoom.com.
@mmasnick @kathryntewson Also, my company got acquired by Intuit in 2005, and there a whoooole lot of convos with their GC along the lines of "convince me your services aren't going to put me in prison for UPL".
I get the feeling this AI Legal Advice hasn't had those convos with anyone.
@mmasnick @kathryntewson prediction: assuming there’s anymore engagement, the goal post just keeps moving (e.g., there’s a bug with the unblocking code). When you point out inconsistencies in his representations, he’ll alternate between flattery (e.g., I’ve always loved your work) and veiled threats. It’s all puffery and vaporware.
@mmasnick @kathryntewson I think it was a suggestion in The Lean Startup to have humans do simple tasks (not practicing law) that a company planned to build software to do, to test the business model. Maybe they're trying to do that, but with practicing law, which is problematic if they're not licensed to practice.
@mmasnick
@kathryntewson nothing says open to feedback like a good ole reblock
@mmasnick @kathryntewson if you're going to use AI as a marketing gimmick I have to say dude missed a real opportunity to also work Blockchain into the mix
@LibrationPointThree @mmasnick @kathryntewson go outside, turn around three times and spit. don’t be bringing that bad juju into this. A2J Tech is already such an uphill battle…
@mmasnick @kathryntewson Did this guy just trick a bunch of VCs into giving him money to run a worse, illegal Legalzoom
@andrew @jacobschumer @kathryntewson and, well, there are lots of folks who have noted that Yuri Milner basically has been laundering questionable Russian money into Silicon Valley for years. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/yuri-milner-facebook-twitter-russia.html
@mmasnick @jacobschumer @kathryntewson
At one time he owned Mail.ru, which was *the* email host to choose if you were doing nefarious things (spam, software piracy, etc.) in the early 00s. They wouldn't shut down an email account for anything.
It seems there is a new grift.
@mmasnick @jacobschumer @kathryntewson
Here's another rabbit hole to dive down, Balaji Srinivasan (former Coinbase CTO mentioned above) was linked to the Dark Enlightenment movement -- which is a fun group.
https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/22/geeks-for-monarchy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
Seems like the sorts of folks that are super about democratizing access to the courts. 
@mmasnick @kathryntewson So, are we taking odds on whether or not Mr. Browser might himself wind up needing to enlist the services of a flesh and blood attorney sooner rather than later?
Kathryn Tewson is one of the best and anyone not following her should be.
@mmasnick @kathryntewson Holy hell. I had low expectations, but... 
@mmasnick @kathryntewson@sdf.org Great article!
They seem to me like the most US thing the US ever USed.
But then I also thought "Time to Sue Anyone in Small Claims Court!'" sounds like the enthusiastic opening line of a US ad for a breakfast cereal. My view of your legal customs is maybe a little overly dystopic.
BTW, if I were a US lawyer, I would totally decorate my office with a leather grimoire with a fat ol' pentagram on it, and the title "Create A Power Of Attorney".
@mmasnick @kathryntewson I AM SHOCKED THAT 'LEGAL AI WORK' IS VAPOR, SOME MECHANICAL TURKS, AND SEVERAL RACCOONS IN A BIG BOX MARKED 'TOTALLY LEGAL SHIT HERE'
Oh wow, it's worse than even I could have imagined.
@mmasnick @kathryntewson It got linked to in this NPR article I was just reading: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/25/1151435033/a-robot-was-scheduled-to-argue-in-court-then-came-the-jail-threats