This chatbot helps refugees claim asylum, for free

Refugees struggling with asylum applications can now use a chatbot to get free legal aid in the US, Canada and the UK. DoNotPay, created by London-born Stanford student Joshua Browder, started out as an artificial-intelligence lawyer helping with parking tickets and delayed flights. After success in those areas -- it overturned more than 160,000 parking fines across London and New York for free -- lawyers and nonprofits reached out saying that the idea of automated legal services cold be extended to help refugees stranded in these countries. "I hope it will allow anyone to have a right to safety, regardless of the ability to afford a lawyer," Browder, 20, told Mashable. The chatbot works by asking users a series of questions to determine if they're eligible for asylum protection under international law, such as: "Are you afraid of being subjected to torture in your home country?"