Community Law Centres o Aotearoa in partnership with Citizen AI released a chatbot for people having problems with
renting today.
“Rentbot” makes information about tenancy law more accessible to the over 2.9 million people in New Zealand who use
Facebook.
Rentbot is a free digital assistant to answer questions about renting, and the rights and responsibilities of tenants
and landlords. It can be accessed for free via Facebook Messenger: m.me/rentbotnz
Chief Executive of Community Law Centres o Aotearoa, Sue Moroney believes the chatbot will help improve access to
quality legal information in an innovative format. "It’s exciting for Community Law to be at the cutting edge of getting
legal information to people. Decent housing is so important to people’s lives and Rentbot is a tool that will make
important information more accessible. It will particularly appeal to younger renters.”
Rentbot has been developed by Citizen AI, a charitable organisation whose mission is to use artificial intelligence for
public benefit. Citizen AI Executive Director Geoffrey Roberts says, "Rentbot is a great example of how we can leverage
advances in natural language processing to create a tool that helps those experiencing problems as a tenant. With more
and more people renting and typically the less well-off portion of the population too, Rentbot can help tackle the types
of problems many people face and is available for a chat 24/7."
Rentbot is the first of three legal information chatbots produced with funding from the Michael and Suzanne Borrin
Foundation – a new philanthropic foundation that supports legal education and legal research projects.
“RentBot is about making plain-English legal information about renting more accessible to the 90% of adults who are on
Facebook. Knowledge is power. And when people understand the law, their rights and obligations better, they can
negotiate for better outcomes.” said Michelle Wanwimolruk, Philanthropic Advisor for the Michael and Suzanne Borrin
Foundation
Citizen AI and the Rentbot project have also benefited from generous pro bono support from law firms Bell Gully, Russell
McVeagh and Chapman Tripp.
Citizen AI's next project "Workbot" is to be released in 2019. "An employment law chatbot is really the next level for
us, as it is much more complex than tenancy law. We are looking forward to the challenge of creating a really useful
tool for employees across the country", says Geoffrey Roberts, Executive Director, Citizen AI.