DoNotPay Is Launching An AI Chatbot That Can Negotiate Your Bills (theverge.com) 21
DoNotPay, the company that bills itself as "the world's first robot lawyer," is launching a new AI-powered chatbot that can help you negotiate bills and cancel subscriptions without having to deal with customer service. The Verge reports: In a demo of the tool posted by DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder, the chatbot manages to get a discount on a Comcast internet bill through Xfinity's live chat. Once it connects with a customer service representative, the bot asks for a better rate using account details provided by the customer. The chatbot cites problems with Xfinity's services and threatens to take legal action, to which the representative responds by offering to take $10 off the customer's monthly internet bill.
This tool builds upon the many neat services DoNotPay already offers, which mainly allows customers can generate and submit templates to various entities, helping them to file complaints, cancel subscriptions, fight parking tickets, and much more. It even uses machine learning to highlight the most important parts of a terms of service agreement and helps customers shield their photos from facial recognition searches. But this is the first time DoNotPay's using an AI chatbot to interact with a representative in real time. The report notes that DoNotPay's bot is "built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3 API, the underlying toolset used by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot that tons of people have been playing around with to generate detailed (and sometimes nonsensical) responses."
This tool builds upon the many neat services DoNotPay already offers, which mainly allows customers can generate and submit templates to various entities, helping them to file complaints, cancel subscriptions, fight parking tickets, and much more. It even uses machine learning to highlight the most important parts of a terms of service agreement and helps customers shield their photos from facial recognition searches. But this is the first time DoNotPay's using an AI chatbot to interact with a representative in real time. The report notes that DoNotPay's bot is "built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3 API, the underlying toolset used by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot that tons of people have been playing around with to generate detailed (and sometimes nonsensical) responses."
No Direct Link? (Score:4, Informative)
All those links to articles and no direct link to the actual website? https://donotpay.com/ [donotpay.com]
Lol. (Score:3)
The demo video straight up looks like two bots arguing with each other thanks to the call center script.
Feature list from their website (Score:2)
THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH DONOTPAY
Fight Corporations
Beat Bureaucracy
Find Hidden Money
Sue Anyone
Automatically Cancel Your Free Trials
Let's see how well it does when they inevitably get sued from all sides. *popcorn intensifies*
Re: (Score:2)
the future legal dystopia you didn't know you needed or were getting
Companies could make this so much simpler (Score:1)
It would be great if we could just skip a lot of steps and have a QR code on DoNotPay that pulls up a coupon on services you subscribe for an automatic 10% off, that way it saves the companies a lot of support staff trouble and pain having to deal with a flood of chatbots.
Good old fashioned protection money!
Re: (Score:3)
Priv (Score:2)
using account details provided by the customer
Oh please, oh please let me type all my personal and financial details into your chat-bot website!
Not nice. (Score:5, Insightful)
I know it is the American Way to sue as much as you can and as many good innocent people as you can, for they are easy prey, but it is not nice.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Not nice. (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the behaviour of the service providers, it seems justified.
Even in the UK it's often a pain. I had to cancel a service for my mum recently. Tried calling but they hung up, so in the end used WhatsApp. Even then I had to keep repeated the word "no" and it took half an hour for them to accept that she was cancelling.
I had to make a semi legal threat to get past the pleading and delaying tactics.
Re: (Score:2)
I find your characterization of Comcast as "good, innocent people" to be a little off.
Also, I would identify the "easy prey" in this scenario as the customers, seeing as they are the ones getting dicked every month by a monopoly.
And, I would identify that, as the "American Way".
The fact this could be a thing is what annoys. (Score:3)
Re:The fact this could be a thing is what annoys. (Score:5, Interesting)
Fuck retention, anyone that has such a department needs to be pushed off a cliff.
Nah, I think it needs a better term: "proactive retention", and perhaps a spinoff: "actual problem resolution".
For the first, I was a customer of a cable company for about five years. Never a late payment, never a problem, just paid my bill and got service. And, the promo pricing expired, okay fine, I expected some 30% increase. No issue. Then over the course of six months, it basically doubled, during which they had a "for life" pricing promotion that I would have gotten if I hadn't been their customer for the past eighteen months. So, I called and asked if they could match the promo for me, even for a year, no. I'd call about once a month for about six months, trying to get them to budge, no such luck. Finally, Starlink was available, so I called and I asked to disconnect my service again...suddenly, they were willing to cut my bill in half for the next two years, which I took them up on. Had they been able to do something the first dozen times I'd called, I'd never have even looked at competitors. Maybe randomly throw in free HBO for three months or double my internet speed for a while, no charge, automatically comes off if I don't permanently move to it, or maybe give me 50% off my bill for December. Those sorts of random things surely cost less than cutting my bill in half, but it'd have made me far more happy, and far more loyal, before I ever got on the phone with someone from the "Retention Department".
The second thing I'd like is an "actual resolution" department. During the aforementioned time, I was one of the tiny minority of CableCARD users, because f'k those cable boxes and the HDHomeRun Prime + Windows Media Center combination is likely the best TV experience I've ever had. The problem is that they decided to get new CableCARDs, and I didn't realize there was an expiration date on activating them, so when I finally did, it was a whole problem, because the CSRs so rarely dealt with it, so I get tossed around to try and get a working one again, that it just wasn't worth the headache. I'm sure that if I'd gotten to the retention department, someone, somewhere, would have asked around until a working cablecard was overnighted to me, rather than giving me either a blank stare or infuriating levels of runaround.
Now, one might argue that I've basically described what a customer service department should actually function as, and I'd certainly agree...but if we can't have *everyone* able to do whatever it takes to keep customers happy, then we can have at least some subsection of people who actually know what's what. ...And yes, the "I want to cancel the account" discussion should be simple, "Would you like me to see if I could work out an arrangement to keep you as a customer, or would you like me to start the process?" "start the process" "okay, we're sorry to see you go, while I'm doing the basic steps required to being the process, would you like to tell me why you're leaving us, or would you like me to let you know when I get to the point when I need input from you?". This way, opportunities are granted, but if 'process in silence' is all the person wants, then that's what the person gets.
well gee golly (Score:2)
10 bucks off of cockmast intrawebs... I have battled these asshats for years before we got fiber in our hood, want more than 20m/s and not a new customer? FUCK YOU pay for a TV plan and bam instantly my internet bill went from 69.99 to 189 a month
What were my "plentiful options" 10 meg DSL and dialup, so yea grats your AI negotiated the same discount you get with paperless billing, clap clap... now make it negotiate "please don't rape me in the ass" other services by force
The second we were notified that fi
Re: (Score:2)
I had a cable company (Cox) give me a receipt for the equipment I returned, they tried to charge me for a month of service AFTER I had returned it, even when I pointed out to the person on the phone that if I had proof and that if I hadn't returned the equipment there would be a charge for the equipment not being returned.. I refused to pay and they sent it to collections. I told collections politely once that it was not a valid debt, filed an objection with CSFB to try to demand they leave me alone, and th
- a useful alternative - (Score:3)
I've been using nolo.com for about 40 years for legal and financial insight. I know, I know, they publish books, and books are outa style. But you don't have to read them; only the chapter(s), chart(s), form(s) etc that apply to you. There is free information at the site and some interactive activities such as launching your own LLC. Your library will have some of their books too; but check the publication date- important for legal stuff.
They have how-to bankruptcy books that I've consulted, form-a-corporation books, beat a traffic ticket, contract law, criminal, divorce, employment issues, landlord problems, etc.
Currently they also offer to connect you with a lawyer who can deal with your situation. I have no connection with them except happy memories of authors and others who work with them. I expect you will get good advice.
$18 a month?? (Score:2)
They'd better save me a lot more than $10 if their only option is a subscription of $36 every 2 months!
New levels of harassment (Score:2)
That said, how long until there's a law requiring these services to identify themselves as such, and service providers refuse to accept communication from these things? I give it 5 years.
Just remember... (Score:2)
For every instance like this of a specific aid to the average joe, there are a dozen infinitely more sophisticated systems pointed AT us. If this is successful, Comcast will just turn around and replace their support staff with more sophisticated AI's trained to repel ours.
Soon you will have no idea if you're talking to a machine with sophisticated persuasion algorithms pushing a corporate agenda, or with a real flesh and blood human with thoughts and experiences of their own.
There's also a cheaper, russian based version (Score:2)
although it will demand free space in your basement.
problems with Xfinity's services (Score:2)
I cut the cord because of "problems with Xfinity's services". Where I live it's either them or DSL for broadband and DSL is actually more reliable for me.