British Student Uses Artificial Intelligence Chatbot To Get Parking Fine Revoked



When Millie Houlton received a £60 ($73.92) parking ticket, she was tempted to pay it rather than spend time challenging it. However, the 22-year-old college student decided to use ChatGPT to help write a letter about the ticket. Artificial intelligence chatbots are designed to answer questions by finding information and presenting it in a lifelike way. Despite seeming comprehensive, the system sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. In Houlton’s case, the chatbot responded with the perfect letter. The chatbot explained that Houlton was a college student who had paid for a parking permit for 2 years and would not park somewhere she shouldn’t. The chatbot went on to explain that Houlton had parked her car at the back of her house because she had received a notice of road work that was going to be done in the front. She believed when she parked in the back that she was parking legally and was not aware that her back wheels were over the yellow line, as the line was very faint and difficult to see. To Houlton’s surprise, the parking authority withdrew the fine, which was a great relief. ChatGPT has more than 100 million users and can respond to questions in a human-like way, writing speeches, poems, marketing copy, student homework, and even computer code.