Student who created bot to appeal parking tickets hopes to help the homeless with his technology
A Stanford University student who created an automated process to appeal parking tickets hopes to use his expertise to help the homeless.
Joshua Browder created a DoNotPay “bot” that allows users in New York City and the United Kingdom to challenge parking tickets. Users answer questions, and the answers are used to create a document that can be used to appeal the tickets. Now Browder tells the Washington Post he is using the same technology to help the homeless.
In the United Kingdom, the homeless can visit Browder’s website at DoNotPay.co.uk to answer questions about why they are homeless, their medical conditions and their disabilities. The website creates an application for government housing. Browder hopes to introduce the bot to create housing applications in New York City and to help those facing evictions and foreclosures.
Shelly Nortz of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City sees potential problems.
“A lot of our clients don’t fit into cookie-cutter situations and I’m afraid of vulnerabilities that could rise from a bot handling applications and other legal issues,” she told the Washington Post. “These issues are a lot more complicated than a parking ticket.”
