Technology has had a great effect on our lives and the positives are usually seen to outweigh the negatives. Just recently a Technical University of Kenya student, Henry Onyango, invented an App that tells you when your gas tank is running out. Great idea, right? It is through such inventions that people – the likes of Mark Zuckerberg – can earn an income from their comfort zone.
Apps came up to help make our work easier like ordering for an Uber, food and now there is an app that allows you to sue without the need of a lawyer. And for the slightest crime that you think you should be paid for. The DoNotPay App allows you to sue anyone by just pressing a button. When I read about this app in a blog, I instantly thought about all the money people could save from paying lawyers.
When you need to sue someone through the app, the Chatbot -a computer program designed to simulate conversation with the human user – works by asking you a series of basic questions about your situation and who you would like to sue. It will then draw up the documents that you need to send to the court house to become a plaintiff. You will then be notified whether you will need to go to the court or not.
The brain behind this great idea is a Stanford student, Joshua Browder, who wanted to help himself and others from the injustice of parking authorities. It aims at the use of technology in the entire legal process. But it raised so many questions in my head about the technology and even the legal system.
Through my observations, I feel that in some years to come, technology will take away all the jobs that humans have. In this situation, think about all the lawyers that miss possible clients due to the app. What about the legal system? The mare reason lawyers and judges attend law school is to get deeper knowledge on law that other citizens don’t have and help them in their cases.
We can also check on what great things such an app can bring. Anyone can sue and for now the app is free and you pay no fee unlike all the money used up on lawyers. It is a disappointment this app cannot just be used in any county. This is because every Government has a different legal system and laws used in the US may be different from what is done here in Kenya.
In the end, it all depends on whether the invention is beneficial to all or even a group of people. Maybe someone will come up with an app of decongesting Nairobi without us necessarily having to walk from Ngara.
Feature Image Courtesy: AS
