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Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

theguardian.com

21–30 of 97 posts

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#21

So what happens when all 10.5 million Somalians, 22.85 million Syrians, 24.41 million Yemenis, 33.42 millions Iraqis, 37.96 million Sudanese, 6.35 million Eritreans, 77.45 million Iranians, etc apply?

It was already a lottery. Not everyone will apply, but the odds of getting in will surely get worse. They were already pretty long. This American Life did a good story on this:

"Ira talks to cyber cafe workers around the world about something that lots of Americans have never heard of, but that people in other countries know all about: a lottery run by the U.S. government where the prize is a visa to come to America. Each year people flock to cyber cafes to enter it, hoping for a lucky break that will change their life."

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/560/...

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#22
post #15

Great to see more chatbots that encourage real world civic action, not just make it easier to order pizza. I did similar work with Hello.Vote for voter registration, and there are so many offline forms that could be improved with a bit of web/messaging UI. Also see snapfresh.org for a CfA project that helps find places that accept EBT cards.

Not sure if this is actual "civic action". At least if this is deployed in Europe, it sounds to me more like a deliberate action to completely destroy what remains of the asylum system, which is already struggling both technically and with its political and popular support, due to the large number of applicants who are economic migrants rather than actual refugees.

It may be different with U.S. and Canada, though - things are a bit easier when asylum applicants are not coming over unguarded land borders.

(FWIW, I've assisted an immigrant, an old woman, in composing her complaint to the national courts and ECHR. The system is rigged against honest applicants because of the overload caused by more or less frivolous cases. We lost, too, technically, but she was in too bad shape to be deported so eventually got permission to stay.)

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#24
post #14

So what happens when all 10.5 million Somalians, 22.85 million Syrians, 24.41 million Yemenis, 33.42 millions Iraqis, 37.96 million Sudanese, 6.35 million Eritreans, 77.45 million Iranians, etc apply?

nationality is segregation

I've never heard this concept before, but I really like it.

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#25
post #7

What worries me about this is the liability- if you mess up someone's asylum claim, they can die, or suffer extreme harm (e.g. if they're tortured). I'd be interested in seeing how DoNotPay manages their liability.

At what level are they allowed to say something to the effect of "We are trying out very best to make this as useful and applicable to everyone, and in order to help as many people as possible we'd like you to agree to not hold us liable for anything bad that happens. Use us as a resource but we are not fully authoritative."

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#26
post #15

Great to see more chatbots that encourage real world civic action, not just make it easier to order pizza. I did similar work with Hello.Vote for voter registration, and there are so many offline forms that could be improved with a bit of web/messaging UI. Also see snapfresh.org for a CfA project that helps find places that accept EBT cards.

Not sure if this is actual "civic action". At least if this is deployed in Europe, it sounds to me more like a deliberate action to completely destroy what remains of the asylum system, which is already struggling both technically and with its political and popular support, due to the large number of applicants who are economic migrants rather than actual refugees. It may be different with U.S. and Canada, though - t…

Capital flows completely freely between borders, but people can't. I don't really blame anyone for being economic migrants - they're just refugees of a different type.

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#27
post #12

So what happens when all 10.5 million Somalians, 22.85 million Syrians, 24.41 million Yemenis, 33.42 millions Iraqis, 37.96 million Sudanese, 6.35 million Eritreans, 77.45 million Iranians, etc apply?

Since this certainly won't happen, what's the point of your question?

> Since this certainly won't happen, what's the point of your question?

Demographic explosion in Africa coupled with the consequences of global warming makes it an inevitable event, that should be dealt with right now.

This is not a partisan issue. It's going to destabilize Europe. Massive immigration from third world countries is not the answer to that problem. People in Europe are already on the edge since the latest refugee crisis. What do you think will happen with the next wave? Some people take civil peace for granted a little too much.

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#28
post #16

So what happens when all 10.5 million Somalians, 22.85 million Syrians, 24.41 million Yemenis, 33.42 millions Iraqis, 37.96 million Sudanese, 6.35 million Eritreans, 77.45 million Iranians, etc apply?

The government will do its job and decide what to do with them. I don't think the difficulty of filing an application should be our immigration control method.

The USCIS is run through application fees, by the way.

Re: Chatbot that overturned 160k parking fines now helping refugees claim asylum

#29
post #27
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since this certainly won't happen, what's the point of your question?

> Since this certainly won't happen, what's the point of your question? Demographic explosion in Africa coupled with the consequences of global warming makes it an inevitable event, that should be dealt with right now. This is not a partisan issue. It's going to destabilize Europe. Massive immigration from third world countries is not the answer to that problem. People in Europe are already on the edge since the late…

So what do you propose?
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