A chatbot that gives students and parents legal information related to problems at school has been launched by Community Law Wellington.
Called “
Wagbot,” the software is based on the content of a book published by Community Law Wellington, which it gives users who take part in a conversation.
“There is nothing out there quite like this in New Zealand. Wagbot can understand natural language and gets smarter over time the more people chat to it,” said Geoffrey Roberts, Community Law Wellington general manager.
Matthew Bartlett, who led the technical development of the chatbot, said that it works well as a way of advising people of their options via conversations.
“It’s very quick to respond, can chat to multiple people at once and you don’t need to download an app as it is freely available through Facebook Messenger,” he said.
The chatbot has already seen a spike in use over the last few weeks, said Community Law. As more and more teenagers use the chatbot, it uses artificial intelligence to learn from its chats and improve.
According to its developers, they will next tackle how to apply Wagbot’s technology to the 900-page Community Law Manual, which has nearly 3,000 questions and answers about legal issues. Community Law Wellington is also in talks with several organisations about possibly partnering to develop “Wagbot” interfaces for other applications.
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