A.I. for the defense: Bot beats traffic tickets

July 21, 2017 in News by RBN Staff

 

Source: Pivotal Point | by Jon Markman 

Next time you get a traffic ticket, there’s a bot for that.

The artificially intelligent software defends drivers against traffic tickets – and wins often. And it’s now available in all 50 states.

However, the larger implications are more exciting. Something big is happening.

Right now, software can learn to reason and think like humans. It’s not something out of science fiction. And it will only get better.

Most investors are still woefully unaware, and unprepared.

For example, they haven’t heard the remarkable story behind this AI legal eagle. The software bot was developed by an idealistic British teenager.

Two years ago, Joshua Browder put together a website called DoNotPay.co.uk. The goal was simple: Provide free legal assistance to the people who could least likely afford it.

You can try his website by clicking here.

The service consists of a simple search window where users enter the text of their legal problem. Then the bot generates a specific appeal letter that can be printed, signed and mailed off to the authorities.

An easy-to-use software program helps drivers beat traffic tickets without any charge.

The Verge reports that DoNotPay’s simplicity attracted hundreds of thousands of users. And it quickly spread to Seattle and New York.

Over a two-year span, Browder figures the service helped defeat 375,000 tickets along with fines in excess of $2.6 million.

And now the software is helping with other legal issues, too.

It can handle discrimination grievances. And it even helps consumers get compensation from airlines that detain passengers. All told, the number of categories has swollen to 1,000.

Other software bots are even more ambitious.

AI excels at comprehending and analyzing data. So, Vinod Khosla, a billionaire venture capitalist and cofounder of Sun Microsystems, believes intelligent software will replace oncologists within five years.

The aggressive time frame aside, think about that for a moment.

Oncologists diagnose and treat cancer. In one way or another, they will touch most people’s lives. They are trusted. They are valued.

At a San Francisco conference in June, Venture Beat reports that Khosla told an MIT panel he couldn’t “imagine why a human oncologist would add value, given the amount of data in oncology.”

He’s looking at the numbers like a seasoned engineer. He sees a vast amount of data. He understands how AI software can make better-informed decisions from all that data.

It’s hard to argue with him.

IBM (IBM) has an extensive program that feeds structured and unstructured data into its Watson cognitive engine. It’s already working with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to identify and diagnose cancers. And this is only the beginning.

Medical experts already have an idea what the software is capable of. They’re planning for it.

Investors need to prepare, too.

Today’s emergent technology represents one of the biggest investment opportunities of our lifetime. Smart software will allow makers to build everything they can dream up. In the process, massive fortunes will be earned.

Right now, small companies are developing exciting software business models in accounting, legal and even financial technology.

Others are working on tomorrow’s robotics in virtual reality.

Because they are not constrained by the physical world, researchers can make the robots as large or small as they choose. Already, some are building microscopic robots that can be injected into the bloodstream to fight disease.

These are the stocks and stories I bring to my members every day.

Naysayers want to make it a cliché. It’s the 1990s revisited, they opine.

They are wrong.

They will miss it. They always do.

An easy-to-use bot that argues traffic tickets is a cute idea. But don’t miss what’s really happening. This is big.

Best wishes,

Jon Markman