AI lawyer by Profila/University of Luzern - phase 2 - extended WEB3 legal database

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Michiel Van Roey

[GENERAL] Email address of main applicant

michiel@profila.com

Additional applicants

Shawn Jensen

Luke Bragg

Mikko Kotila

Kuba

Vlad

Mitchell

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

4

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.” .

No dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] If NO, please describe which outputs are not going to be open source. If YES, please write “Project will be fully open source.”

Project will be fully open source

[METADATA] Category of Proposal

Data tools

[METADATA] SDG rating

Profila is a Social Impact project as highlighted in the Sustainable ADA report. And Profila supports multiple SDGs.

The main social impact is that the Innovation Project will help people understand the meaning and

implications of legal terms that apply to their private and professional activities on Cardano/in Web3 as part of project catalyst.

The second social impact lies in the open-sourcing of the Innovation Project results via Profila’s non-profit organization, the Profila Alliance, so that other companies can implement our knowledge base in their own solutions, and be inventive about how they can use it for the benefit of the community (point 2).

A third social impact lies in the access for consumers to the legal market. Currently there is a threshold that keeps people from contacting a lawyer, which might be due to the high fees, or the fact that you need to make a meeting in a law firm which seems a big thing. By lowering the threshold for consumers to ask questions to (privacy) lawyers to as low as 10 CHF/question, a lawyer is affordable and just 1 click away. In the first version of our knowledge base which is already online (+1000 documents, people can access the legal information for free).

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

As a first use case of the AI lawyer, we have been funded by the Swiss government to create a smart knowledge base of privacy laws, where we can match people's questions about privacy with privacy laws and privacy policies, in order to provide them an answer. This knowledge base is to be used inside our existing Profila app which helps you control your data and access to your personal information.

However, once the model works with one set of documents, it is easy to replicate. Under this proposal, we want to use our learnings from our existing privacy research project for the benefit of the Cardano community, who have to navigate an often difficult legal landscape while working on groundbreaking technology.

As a second use case of the AI lawyer - which we started building out under fund 9 and which is accessible for all (for free) here - https://app.ai-lawyer.profila.com/read.php# (password - "profila2022"), we have collected additional laws relevant to people and entrepreneurs on Cardano and in the Web3 space (e.g. taxation, financial laws, corporate laws etc), and feed it to our smart knowledge base. The community now have one source of legal documentation relevant for their activities in the Cardano and Web3 space, which they can query to find the correct legal document that applies to their industry; activities; region; customers etc.

Under this follow up project, we want to (1) update the 1000+ document legal base with additional important legal publications that were published in the last months (e.g. MICA/markets in crypto-asset directive; info on SEC proceedings in USA; etc); and (2) improve the usability of the tool by improving the search function; allowing people to select regions (e.g. 'only legal docs in USA') and topics (e.g. "only documents linked to securities legislation"); (3) add a chatbot for direct access to a WEB3 lawyer.

After this project; we will improve the answering process of the knowledge base so it doesn't only provide the exact document, but it only answers with brief, concise and useable answers to questions. We cannot implement this yet because the AI lawyer project with HSLU (as described in use case no. 1) which is building this smart knowledge base tech, will only be finalized in December 2023. This additional improvement will therefore be for fund 11 but in the meantime we can already increase the knowledge base and improve the user experience (under this fund 9).

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Additional information - the pioneering Innosuisse project

Before we go into detail in the proposal "AI lawyer on Cardano - Profila & HSLU", we need to explain the preparation work that we are already doing with HSLU for the first use case. Please find below the first use case for privacy knowledge and privacy laws, explaining how people's personal data can (or cannot be) processed:

“Are They Allowed To Do That?” — Profila and HSLU Developing An “AI Lawyer” For Legal Questions so that people can finally understand the privacy and cookie policies they are forced to accept when browsing the internet

What is the problem that Profila and HSLU are solving?

People interact with digital services and purchase products from companies (Brands) globally. Each interaction you have online is regulated by a privacy policy that you are forced to accept. Thereby, you agree to share your personal data, without knowing how they Brands use it.

But what can you do if Brands use your data against your expectations? Do you actually know what terms you agreed to when you accepted to share your personal data?

A real-life example

Meet Maria (46) and Daniel (48), with their kids, Mia (16) and Noah (21). Daniel subscribed online to his local newspaper (let call the company “The Newspaper”) and accepted the privacy policy, which specifies that different The Newspaper-affiliated companies could send offers by E-Mail and SMS (I agree that The Newspaper and companies of the Newspaper Group may inform me in the future about other interesting offers by e-mail and SMS).

Maria registers an account for an online pick-up service from her local supermarket (let call the company “The Supermarket”) and is asked to confirm the privacy policy (I confirm that I have read and understood the privacy policy and the processing of my personal data described therein). According to the 10-page privacy policy, The Supermarket can share Maria’s data with The Supermarket-linked companies.

The family now starts receiving messages more frequently than expected and via different channels (email, SMS, mail), but also from brands they have never shared data with. Maria receives 15 emails/week with newsletters from The Supermarket. The family letter box is full of flyers from “The Spa”, “The Nightshop” and “The Movies” (also part of The Supermarket Group).

The problem here is: Almost all of the info on how companies use personal data is (albeit not in plain language) included in their privacy policies the family “accepted”. However, people generally don’t understand what they agree to, and do not know how to act when they want to alter the terms of their relationship with brands.

Today - How Profila solves a consumers' understanding of how a brand uses your data today

Profila is a platform (mobile IOS/Android application for individuals and a web-based dashboard for companies, organizations, governments, and other legal entities, we call “Brands”) that enables individuals to communicate with various organizations in their lives, privately, one-to-one, and without supervision or surveillance.

Through it, Brands can subscribe to personal data that consumers keep in their Profila (one source of truth with a consumer’s contact details, communication-, product preferences), after a consumer accepts the (privacy and legal) terms of such contract.

Using our example above:

Migros pays Maria 10 CHF/year to access her (i) personal data (email, phone), (ii) preferences about food (vegetarian, bio-products, lactose intolerant) and (iii) communication preferences (Maria would like to receive discounts/product info via WhatsApp). If Migros listens to Maria, she will be a happy consumer.

AI Lawyer tomorrow - How the AI lawyer innovation project on Cardano will improve your understanding of privacy policies you are forced to accept outside of the Profila platform

Supporting customer’s comprehension of the term of a privacy agreement they are accepting by interacting with a website or concluding a contract for an online service is the core point of this Innovation project. Our privacy solution tomorrow will help you better understand the terms that brand propose to you when they ask you for your personal data while you are browsing the internet (outside of the protection of the profila platform).

A typical user perceives this legal document as complicated and therefore the privacy statement will be simply accepted without reading it throughout. Nevertheless, by supporting the average user in understanding it, we expect a better awareness of the impact such an agreement acceptance can have with respect of the personal data usage by the companies.

Under the Innosuisse Project, Profila and HSLU are developing a ”smart knowledge base” (KB) composed of questions and answers (Q&A) that can be matched with the specific doubt or question a user has. This will work as the intelligence behind a conversational agent, proposed as a self-help tool.

A chatbot answers the user’s query by scanning the knowledge base for the best matches to propose. This should be able to solve the most common and standard aspects but will fail for more specific needs. In order to provide an advanced service, a match between the specific request and experts will be provided, in order to give a rapid and low-cost option to clarify the subject with a legal expert.

Additionally, by collecting user feedback about the perceived quality of the information and the experts suggested, the system will improve its own performance, taking into account these metrics.

The vision is to provide a one-stop-solution for every user privacy-oriented question of online services. The creation of the KB (on the top left in the illustration) and the matching algorithm will be based on Natural Language Processing (NLP), in order to support the adoption of natural language in the interaction with the user, thus reducing the entry barrier for customers.

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Next step - commercial real life use case of our AI lawyer project for the Cardano community

There is a need to build effective solutions to explore and provide legal & financial services and support to funded Proposers.

If you receive funding to build out your DEX, your token offering, your financial service, your NFT offering, or even your meme token (love to Hosky!), you are faced with a variety of legal questions around regulatory compliance, taxation, AML/KYC, payment services, etc, and this potentially in many jurisdictions considering you are offering your product or service on the internet. The only way to navigate this web of legal obligations is to consult lawyers, who are expensive, often only specialized in one aspect of your business, and only able to provide you an answer for one jurisdiction.

Via this project, have already collected and will now further complete the wide variety of legal documents, laws, regulations, recommendations, court cases, company policies, industry whitepapers, etc, that contain the answer to most of the legal questions you may have as an innovative entrepreneur on Cardano/web 3 space.

Next steps - fund 11 - By making the knowledge base "smart" (=following our research with HSLU as explained above) and easy to query (=ask answers to), you will be able to get an automated answer in seconds and at a price of 2-10 USD per relevant answer. In case the answer to your question is not found in the knowledge base or if its not entirely clear, you can connect to a group of legal experts in our network who provide you a more detailed response.

This solution will let you gain time, confidence and legal certainty to operate and expand your blockchain activities at a lower cost and higher speed.

[IMPACT] How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

There is a need to build effective solutions to explore and provide legal & financial services and support to funded Proposers.

First, once finalized in its '"smart" state, our solution will improve access to legal knowledge for proposers (and others in the Cardano ecosystem), at the mere cost of 2-10 USD per question you ask the AI lawyer. As part of this proposal (and the earlier fund 9), the legal database which is being build up is accessible for free. There is not one location online where you can find more than a 1000 legal documents around Web3 only. https://app.ai-lawyer.profila.com/read.php# (password - "profila2022")

As part of this innovation projects first work package, we are building the first steps of our AI-lawyer which can automatically answer certain questions from the industry. Instead of the need to contact a real-life lawyer each time you have a specific legal question, our AI-lawyer will allow you to query the smart-knowledge base and almost instantaneously get the document that will lead you to the most relevant answer which it has matched against more than 1.000 legal documents.

Second, our solution will improve access to actual lawyers for people, without any retainers or large legal fees. We are building up a network of blockchain lawyers that will be able to give you understandable answers to your legal questions (not solved by the knowledge base automatically), at a cost of approx. 25 USD per question (up to 150 USD per question). In this follow up phase (before it turns "smart"), we will add a chatbot feature where users can ask for WEB3 legal advice or for help on how to use the WEB3 knowlegde base).

[IMPACT] How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

Success:

1. Updated document list (=with all the recently published laws, regulations and other legal events)

2. Improved useability (=easier search, selection on topic or geographical location);

3. Chatbot for direct access to a WEB3 lawyer

[IMPACT] Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

The knowledge base accessible via https://app.ai-lawyer.profila.com/read.php# (password - "profila2022"), is published online (already) and the improved version (see 3 success points above) will also be. All community members can access it, query the documents, and ask questions to our legal team.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

We have already delivered the first phase of the project (under fund 9), as detailed in the project closeout report here -

We will also deliver this second phase.

We already exist for 5 years as a company and have been able to weather many storms. We will be there fore the next 4 months to deliver this second phase.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

To create the next step, improved version of the knowledge base in prep for our smart AI integration and automated Q&A functions.

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

MS1: Document collection update and additional database build-up

The first milestone is the collection of approx. 50-100+ legal documents that are relevant for a project building on Cardano and which were published since the last version of the database was finalized. As the legal landscape changes constantly, it is important to update the database continuously so that users always get the latest/most accurate legal text in response to a search query.

Month of completion: first month after the project start

Cost forecast: 40% of the budget

Project completion: 40% of the project 

MS2: Usability improvements (UX/UI)

The second milestone is UX and UI improvements to the knowledge base for easy search by projects building on Cardano. You will be able to have more detailed search and selection options that allow you to find the right source in the database. We will provide UX and UI designs and implement them on top of the database, accessible to the public for all projects who are building on Cardano.  This will also allow you to select regions; topics; and even save or download your searches.

Month of completion: third month after the project start

Cost forecast: 40% of the budget

Project completion: 70% of the project 

MS3: Chatbot lawyer integration

The third milestone will be the integration of a chatbot manned by a WEB 3 lawyer to help the first users work with the tool and to answer WEB3 related legal questions they may have.

Month of completion: fourth month after the project start

Cost forecast: 20% of the budget

Project completion: 20% of the project 

[CAPABILITY/ FEASIBILITY] Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

MS1: updated database with at least 50-100 new recent WEB3 legal docs, accessible here - https://app.ai-lawyer.profila.com/read.php# (password - "profila2022")

MS2: improved UX/UI version of the current database (link above)

MS3: chatbot integrated in legal database and manned by Web3 lawyer

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

We ask 95.000 ADA (representing 27.000 USD at the time of submission of this proposal):

No. of hours worked per project partner under this work package:

HSLU - Hochschule Luzern - 50 hours at 100 USD per hour (this is funded by the Swiss government for 50% only) - 5.000 USD

Profila GmbH - 100 hours at 100 USD per hour for new document collection - 10.000 USD

100 USD is the reduced price per hour of the legal experts that are working on this work package no. 2, namely Clara-Ann Gordon, Michiel Van Roey, Elena Meier.

Additional budget required - 5 days of project management and reporting work @ 500 USD per day (2.000 USD) (coordinator calls, monthly reporting, newsletter updates, AMA sessions, townhall prep presentations etc).

UX/UI designer - 50 hours at 100 USD per hour - 5.000 USD

Web dev to implement new designs - 50 hours at 100 USD per hour - 5.000 USD

[RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

Today, access to lawyers is hard and expensive, especially lawyers that know their way around WEB3 legislation. In addition, finding the right resources only to understand the legal consequences of offering WEB3 products is also challenging. With this new WEB3 knowlegde base, all Catalyst participants have free access to +1000 legal documents and access to a specialized WEB3 lawyer via a simple chat. The funds invested in fund 9 and 10 to make this knowledge base represent more than 10 years of legal and crypto knowledge and 100's of hours of online research to collect +1000 web3 legal documents in one database.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agreed to Fund10 rules and also that data in the Submission Form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept