Q&A with DoNotPay's Joshua Browder on pivoting from legal issues to refocus on consumer support after getting “distracted”, ChatGPT, future plans, and more

When British-American entrepreneur Joshua Browder first launched his legal services chatbot DoNotPay in 2015 …

Fast Company 2023-01-26 Chris Stokel-Walker

Context & Ripple Effects

DoNotPay built its name as a free legal chatbot covering all 50 US states and the UK, then broadened into privacy tools and raised a £3.7M seed round led by Felicis Ventures followed by a $12M Series A at an $80M valuation. In December it shipped an [[a:985771|AI-powered chatbot that renegotiates bills and cancels subscriptions by talking to customer service]].

Browder now says the company got 'distracted' chasing legal-services use cases and is refocusing on consumer support — a candid reset that lands just as ChatGPT makes conversational agents dramatically more capable than the scripted bots DoNotPay started with.

First-order effects

DoNotPay's engineering and product attention shifts away from legal-services features toward the consumer-support agent it launched in December, making bill negotiation and subscription cancellation the core product rather than one tool among many.
Browder's admission gives investors in the Felicis- and Coatue-backed company a clearer thesis: a consumer-agent business measured on money saved per user, not a sprawling legal toolkit.

Second-order effects

Companies whose call centers are the counterparty to DoNotPay's negotiation bot face rising volumes of automated bargaining, pressuring them to invest in their own AI-driven support automation to keep costs symmetric.
Rivals in subscription-cancellation and bill-negotiation services must match ChatGPT-grade conversation quality quickly, since DoNotPay's pivot signals the scripted-bot era of that category is ending.

Third-order effects

If consumer agents like DoNotPay's become mainstream, the economics of customer service invert: every household gains automated negotiators, forcing businesses toward fully automated support on their side — an arms race between two AIs with the human consumer increasingly out of the loop.
The pivot also sketches a boundary for 'AI-as-lawyer' startups: consumer advocacy framed as support tasks sits in safer territory than practicing law, a line regulators and courts are still drawing for this whole category.

The trend: Consumer AI is shifting from scripted advice bots to autonomous agents that execute tasks end-to-end, with ChatGPT-class models resetting what startups like DoNotPay can promise users.

Discussion

@jbrowder1 Joshua Browder on x
Good morning! Bad news: after receiving threats from State Bar prosecutors, it seems likely they will put me in jail for 6 months if I follow through with bringing a robot lawyer into a physical courtroom. DoNotPay is postponing our court case and sticking to consumer rights:
@jbrowder1 Joshua Browder on x
On February 22nd at 1.30PM, history will be made. For the first time ever, a robot will represent someone in a US courtroom. DoNotPay A.I will whisper in someone's ear exactly what to say. We will release the results and share more after it happens. Wish us luck! https://twitter.…
@jbrowder1 Joshua Browder on x
There isn't a lawyer that will get out of bed to help you with a $400 refund. Thank you all for the feedback regarding the Airpods situation. As much as I love to experiment, I have to stay out of jail if I want to help people fight Comcast!
@jbrowder1 Joshua Browder on x
We have some incredibly exciting announcements regarding GPT consumer rights products in the next two weeks. I have realized that non-consumer rights legal products (e.g defamation demand letters, divorce agreements and others), which have very little usage, are a distraction.
@pt Parker on x
Occupational licensing is a good way to make competition illegal, so sure law bros have made sure this guy can't compete with them, but not all things that are illegal are bad. Shoutout to everybody ready to go to the mat for $400/hour guys in suits' job security tho. https://twi…
@kathryntewson Kathryn Tewson on x
I've been going in pretty hard on @DoNotPay and @jbrowder1 for the past couple of days, and I've had a lot of people defending the service, saying that it could be a real boon to those who can't otherwise afford legal aid.
@kathryntewson Kathryn Tewson on x
The “exciting announcement” is that he's getting rid of all the legal products on the site, including the very two products I was waiting to see my examples of! https://twitter.com/...
@popelizbet @popelizbet on x
if you want people to be able to afford legal aid donating $18 a month to your local legal aid or other public service law nonprofit will do more to make that happen than any for-profit AI speculators. you can start at miamemphis dot kindful dot com and select Lou Swain Memorial.…
@scotusplaces Jack Metzler on x
Unauthorized practice of law is a crime in California. And no, I'm not talking about the AI. https://twitter.com/...
@questauthority Mike Dunford on x
So I had ChatGPT take a swing at an opening statement. Then I did it again - hopefully they won't make my initial mistake. The second attempt...well, it's kinda sorta a defense attempt but...yeah. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@kathryntewson Kathryn Tewson on x
Or maybe there's some other perfectly innocent reason why this brand-new revolutionary technology that is getting its debut in a live courtroom setting in less than a month has been wedged for almost 48 hours with no updates or signs of life. https://twitter.com/...
@nixcraft @nixcraft on x
A British man who planned to have a “robot lawyer” ("AI") help a defendant fight a traffic ticket has dropped the effort after receiving threats of possible prosecution and jail time. A robot was scheduled to argue in court, then came the jail threats https://www.npr.org/...
@kevinbaum013 Kevin Baum on x
This is a great thread by @KathrynTewson. I went on the website. @donotpay and @jbrowder1 are violating §110 of the Bankruptcy Code for bankruptcy petition preparers. Anyone who uses it and has their case dismissed will be entitled to actual damages, $2k and attorney's fees. http…
@questauthority Mike Dunford on x
It's pretty clear that the @donotpay lawyer bot is not just a bad idea in general, but is - along with @jbrowder1 - pretty clearly malpracticing law. I mean, my dude, c'mon. Even 16-year-olds know that you HOPE the cop is a no-show in traffic court. https://twitter.com/...
@courtneymilan @courtneymilan on x
Great news. I think that @DoNotPay makes sense as a way to help people cancel products or otherwise get through the annoying hoops that corporations have set up, and makes absolutely no sense as a legal product. https://twitter.com/...
@itsmattslaw Matt Margolis on x
Therapist: is the AI lawyer in the room with us right now? DoNotPay: yes Bar Associations: no it's not https://twitter.com/...
@normcharlatan Norm Charlatan on x
If you really believed in your product, you'd be willing to go to jail for it. https://twitter.com/...
@neolithicsheep Shepherd on x
“After receiving threats from state prosecutors I have realized that I cannot practice law without actually being a lawyer, not even if I try to make an AI say the actual words” I mean. Everyone but this dude knew that this is in fact what would happen. https://twitter.com/...
@jbrowder1 Joshua Browder on x
I think decisiveness when one is taking the wrong direction is key. We are removing them from DoNotPay, effective immediately, to focus solely on consumer rights. We are also dramatically improving the UX and are working 18 hour days to make it happen.
@profmusgrave @profmusgrave on x
ah so this is the quality of the law-talking advice you can give https://twitter.com/...
@smmarotta Sean Marotta on x
Wow. This is surprising. Who could have possibly thought this would be the result? https://twitter.com/...
@janeost_ Ellen Ring on x
who could have possibly seen this coming except the thousands of people that told you this is exactly what was coming https://twitter.com/...
@wbm312 Whitney Merrill on x
The unauthorized practice of law is illegal. But I take issue with the fact that someone is building “legal tools” who doesn't understand the US legal system & the law. If you want to creatively solve a problem, you have to actually understand the problem you're trying to solve. …
@picketer Tim Lyons on x
Tech bro idiot, who like all tech bro idiots thinks the law does not apply to them, tries to turn a court room into a game show but finds out that contempt of court is a serious criminal offence. He'll start comparing himself to A$$ange is my bet. https://twitter.com/...
@wholemarsblog @wholemarsblog on x
A plan to have an AI lawyer argue a traffic case in court has been put on hold after “multiple state bar associations” threatened @jbrowder1 with prosecution and prison time. https://www.npr.org/...
@jbrowder1 Joshua Browder on x
Great piece by NPR. The whole story revealed, including comments from the prosecutors threatening us with jail: https://www.npr.org/...
@jbrowder1 Joshua Browder on x
Specifically, lowering medical bills, cancelling subscriptions, disputing credit reports, among other things, with A.l. I think it's very important for companies to stay focused. Unlike courtroom drama, these types of cases can be handled online, are simple and are underserved.
@fawfulfan Matthew Chapman on x
Wow, who could have known that bugging a courtroom and using remote-controlled AI software to practice law without a license was illegal, except, like, the thousands of people on Twitter telling you it was illegal for months. https://twitter.com/...
@santiag78758327 Santiago Velez on x
This is amazing work. Don't stop Joshua, the reaction is proof you're going in the right direction. Retreat temporarily, focus, shore up your defenses, and get his man a shield! https://twitter.com/...
@hansmollman Mollie Goodfellow on x
You ever just see a tweet and have no prior context and do a heavy sigh and wonder why you're still here https://twitter.com/...
@rahaeli @rahaeli on x
Absolutely love how the techbro didn't reconsider his ill advised plan until someone got it through his head that there could be consequences for HIM, not just the people who used his product https://twitter.com/...
@ligerzerogaming @ligerzerogaming on x
No actual proof of the letters from various bar associations or prosecutors Shoddy work, @NPR https://twitter.com/...
@mikebutcher Mike Butcher on x
AI actually has a long way to go... https://twitter.com/...
@kathryntewson Kathryn Tewson on x
@TechDirt reached out and asked if they could publish my thread on DoNotPay as an article. ngl, I'm pretty pleased. https://twitter.com/...
@scottgreenfield Scott Greenfield on x
Kathryn Tewson takes DoNotPay, the Robo Lawyer, out for a test drive so you don't have to. https://twitter.com/...
@lilianedwards Lilian Edwards on x
DoNotPay gets a test drive, and lets say, eavesdropping in court without judicial permission may not be its only problem. https://www.techdirt.com/...
@kathryntewson Kathryn Tewson on x
The piece does not contain any quotes from anyone, prosecutor or otherwise, threatening Browder or anyone else with jail. https://twitter.com/...
@boozybadger Col. Boozy Badger on x
I believe we should refer to this guy and his service as “Robo-Notario” from now on. https://twitter.com/...
@mmasnick Mike Masnick on x
We published a guest post from @KathrynTewson, built out of an epic tweet thread, and it's one of my favorite Techdirt posts ever. https://www.techdirt.com/...
@clapifyoulikeme @clapifyoulikeme on x
This thread and the post it inspired are amazing. I was mostly kidding when I said Joshua Browder is going to go to prison, but now I actually think he might. https://www.techdirt.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@scottnover Scott Nover on x
“Let me be clear: this is a terrible demand letter. Absolutely terrible. Useless or worse than useless — if an actual attorney saw this, she would instantly know that the sender was unsophisticated, unrepresented, and gullible as fuck.” https://www.techdirt.com/...

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