Cutting through the legal jargon — Ritika Dutt on how AI can help navigate the system
What if the power of AI could help us tackle complex global issues from the inside out, solving problems of unequal distribution of resources and access to basic needs? Botler AI Co-founder Ritika Dutt believes that the bots are here to serve us by doing more to create systemic change than is humanly possible.
Her company makes the legal and justice systems more accessible and simple to navigate, allowing everyone to become better versed on their rights and legal situation so they can make educated decisions on how to take crucial next steps.
Q: We enjoy fairly uncomplicated access to basic education, health care and other institutional services essential to navigating the modern world. Yet legal help is still often shrouded in jargon, bureaucracy and high prices that make it intimidating to many and inaccessible to more vulnerable, marginalized members of our society. What drew you to address this problem in particular?
RD: As an economist, I believe that the law is a public good, and should therefore be accessible to everyone for free. However, it is not, which is an issue that affects multiple echelons of society. Essentially, unless you have deep pockets to pay for your legal needs, you’re more likely than not to be materially impacted.
The average person does not necessarily easily understand the law or their rights. In order to access this complex information and understand it better, they need to hire lawyers. Often, people (myself included) find that by the time they get to a point where they need a lawyer to go to court or take a definitive action, they’ve already maxed out their budget.
Q: You grew up in Hong Kong and Singapore before immigrating on your own to Canada, you founded the marketing department of a Y Combinator startup from scratch right after graduating from McGill University, you’ve had your share of navigating some complicated systems. How much of your personal experience is behind Botler AI’s mission?
RD: I dealt with a couple of instances after moving to Canada where I had to navigate the legal situation on my own and it was an absolutely awful experience. The sheer contrast and disparity between what I was used to as a child in Singapore and how it is in the “real world,” where I had to fend for myself as an adult in Canada with no safety cushion, really opened my eyes to what the majority of people go through when dealing with the legal system.
With the immigration issue, I went from having a regular life with a paying job to incomeless literally overnight. I had to start rationing out cents and live off toast and instant noodles so that I could make ends meet while I waited for my permanent residency to come through and the issue to be dealt with.
The other personal experience: I found myself with a stalker. It kept getting worse and I still remember waking up every morning filled with fear and dread that I would have to go into work and deal with him. Some of the people around me were amazing and so supportive, while others blamed it all on me and said there was nothing wrong. I really had no idea what my rights were. It was only a few months later, when I was far removed from the situation and able to think rationally, that I found out that his behaviour had constituted criminal harassment (stalking) which was a direct violation of the Canadian Criminal Code.
One of the recurring issues was that many people, myself included, really did not know what constituted actual harassment, or what their rights were in such a situation. I saw the potential for the technology we’d developed at Botler to be applied to criminal laws regarding sexual misconduct and decided to build the tool as a free resource for others in similar circumstances. The idea is to give users a completely anonymous first layer of help, which will hopefully help them be better informed when making a decision on how to deal with the issue.
Q: How do you feel about the reception that Botler has received, not only in North America but internationally?
RD: When you set your mind to tackling a problem, it’s because you genuinely believe you have a novel approach that can help improve the way things currently work. When we started to get a positive reception, it was an incredible stamp of approval that what we built has directly impacted someone’s life for the better. There’s really nothing more that I can ask for.
With the harassment tool, it’s part of the zeitgeist now and it’s really the first time that a lot of people, both men and women, have been able to openly talk about what they’ve dealt with. We’ve had over 30,000 users from around the world in just over 5 months since the launch. Though it’s only available in Canada and the US for now, people from all over the world have been sending us emails asking us to bring it to their country next. As an example, earlier this year we had not one but two different police officers from South Korea reach out to us to request having the tool translated to Korean so they could use it as part of their police work. They were from different cities and had no knowledge of each other, they’d just read about Botler independently and reached out!
It really gives me immense motivation and joy to witness how Botler was able to help someone in a particular situation. Although, if I’m being completely honest, some of these are also so heart wrenching, they keep me up at night because I can’t begin to imagine what they had to live through.
Q: What excites you the most about the future of digital social entrepreneurship?
RD: One of my best friends has been very involved with social entrepreneurship for a long time, but I never imagined that I would also get into the field through the use of technology. Alot of the SE projects she would discuss were very traditional in their approach, such as microfinance cash loans. What I’m most looking forward to is seeing how innovative social entrepreneurs can apply these transformative technologies to tackle these same traditional problems and opportunities!
