Ailira — Domestic Violence Assistant Beta Testing Now Open

Adrian Cartland
5 min readNov 12, 2018

Almost 3 years ago Cartland Law produced a prototype AI to assist victims of domestic violence, after being awarded a $20k grant as part of the D3 Digital challenge. Although the prototype was well received, there were no further funds to proceed. However, domestic violence affects 1 in 3 women over their lifetime and there are 246,000 incidents of domestic violence a year. This is a desperate issue that we need to work on. Over the last 3 years the technology of Ailira has been built up, using it to launch a tax research program which enabled Adrian’s girlfriend (a speech pathologist) to pass a University of Adelaide Tax Law exam, and which beat a paralegal on ABC’s AI Race, and a consumer program to power the world’s first Law Firm Without Lawyers. Now the technology of Ailira has been applied to domestic violence. I am pleased to say that we are now ready to invite you to beta-test the Ailira domestic violence program.

Cartland Law’s work in teaching Ailira to assist victims of domestic violence is entirely self-funded (aside from the initial prototype grant) and will always be provided to victims at no cost.

The Build

There is a unique security system which can conceal the app in a way that hopefully offers the security needed for women who are in need of assistance with domestic violence. Details of this security measure are not being published so that perpetrators will not be able to see it, and I ask that you also refrain from publishing details about it. Ailira can log incidents of domestic violence so as to create a time-stamped paper-trail. She can generate Intervention Orders, accompanying affidavits and background letters based on those logs.

Ailira is not just a form-filling program which records information and plugs it into a document. Ailira can take information in context, and using artificial intelligence compile it into a legal document in such a way that it is ready to present to the court or relevant authorities. Ailira is also able to generate letters explaining the background of a domestic violence victim so that the victim does not have to repeat their traumatic story to authorities multiple times in the course of seeking help.

Ailira can read through material that has been put into logs and can recommend orders sought based on that information. For example Ailira can pick out key phrases from the log such as assault with a particular weapon and will fill the intervention order accordingly. The purpose of Ailira is to make easier for the victim what is otherwise a difficult experience and can drastically cut down the administrative work done by support agencies. Ailira can collect and present information so that support services and domestic violence practitioners can spend their valuable time engaging in advocacy, strategy and empathy, all skills which are very difficult for a robot to do.

Ailira has a document log where victims of domestic violence can upload documents. We have recognised that victims often have restrictions on access to documents and have difficulty getting them to relevant authorities. By being able to store them with Ailira victims of domestic violence have a secure place to store their important documents. These documents can then be automatically added as annexures to affidavits where needed as support material for intervention orders.

Ailira is able to answer questions given to her, although we note that there are a number of existing places that provide this information. She can also provide assistance with who to contact, other phone numbers and other support services who can assist the user.

The Help Needed

Ailira is being put out for testing to people who have an interest in assisting the victims of domestic violence, especially those who have practical experience such as counsellors, lawyers, social workers, police, NFPs etc. Ailira is not live and is not yet suitable for use by victims.

We need help with the following things:

  1. Reviewing Ailira to make sure there is nothing controversial, triggering or potentially harmful in the program;
  2. Feedback on anything we can do to improve the user experience. We have worked hard to make a simple user experience but we recognise that things can always be improved;
  3. We need feedback on the creation of documents, particularly from lawyers working in the field of domestic violence;
  4. We need comments on security and ease of access to the program;
  5. We recognise that this is not something we can do alone and we need to work with other agencies and we need feedback on how we can connect with agencies. In particular we need:
  6. Contacts in the domestic violence field, methods of connecting with agencies and advocacy groups and who can we send if someone requires immediate attention;
  7. Ways in which we can provide Ailira for use in your agency. This could be a physical location which can be accessed by victim’s of domestic violence;
  8. We are keen to work with government agencies in expanding Ailira to other jurisdictions and integrating with their agencies. We need to know who we can work with, what we should do and how we fit in to the ecosystem that assists women who experience domestic violence.
  9. Once we have received sufficient review and testing, then the DV function of Ailira will be added into the main consumer Ailira functionality, which will add to its accessibility and plausible deniability.

How You Can Help

To help test Ailira please enter your details in the form in the link below.

https://www.cartlandlaw.com/ailira-domestic-violence-assistant-beta-testing-now-open/

We will send you a private message with instructions on how you can access the program. We require these details because we need to see you are a real person and it is important to us that we do not explain how this system works to potential perpetrators. Please provide us with a method of verification and if you are uncomfortable with that we can provide an avenue for you to verify your details with us face-to-face.

Please note that submissions are reviewed before access is granted, so there may be a short delay before you receive an email that will explain how to access Ailira

Originally published at www.cartlandlaw.com on November 12, 2018.

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Adrian Cartland

Creator of Ailira, the Artificial Intelligence that automates legal information and research, and Principal of Cartland Law. www.Ailira.com www.CartlandLaw.com