Artificial intelligence integrates our daily life. After the image software, the voice recorder, this tool is now used to inform you. Indeed, on July 11, 2023, the MesAllocs.fr website launched AidesGPT, an online chatbot allowing you to find out which aid you are eligible for. The financial aid expert platform already aimed to provide a solution to the problem of non-recourse to aid.
In France, one in three people does not benefit from the aid to which they are entitled. The integration of artificial intelligence would then make it possible to complete the service already offered. How ? Its founder, Joseph Terzikhan, answers our questions.
Planet. The MesAllocs.fr site brings together nearly 1 million users. What does it bring as a solution to the problem of non-recourse to aid?
Joseph Terzikhan. Our platform provides a solution to each small cause of non-use of social assistance. The first cause is the lack of information: the French do not know what aid they are entitled to. To solve this problem, we participate in making access to information more fluid, that is to say, making it easier to obtain. Thanks to our simulator which brings together 1,800 national, local and departmental aids. This concerns both help to buy a bicycle and help to look after children. We have a person who works full-time on the simulator and who feeds it with new financial assistance.
Our second response to this problem is the posting of thousands of free articles written by lawyers on our website to provide precise information to Internet users who have questions. This helps attract more people to our site.
Planet. What is the added value of the artificial intelligence tool you have just launched?
J.T. The novelty launched a week ago completes our offer. It is an artificial intelligence that feeds both on data from our internal database, that is to say from the questions and answers that have been put to us, and both from external sources such as public sites (impots.gouv; CAF). We will get the information in real time and update it every week.
The new MesAllocs.fr AI tool is presented as an instrument at the service of individuals. But how was it designed?
Planet. This is the first AI service for social workers, how did you come up with the idea?
J.T. We looked at what artificial intelligence brings to our daily lives today: it’s immense. Today, I even see him in my team. People use ChatGPT whenever they have a question. For example, for the development of the technique, ChatGPT is able to correct you a line of code or write an e-mail. We see it in daily use. We then wondered why we would not take advantage of our data, which is abundant, with artificial intelligence to make it even better every day. This makes it possible to provide more precise, more direct, simpler answers to users when today information on aid is quite difficult to understand or quite dispersed.
Planet. You indicate that AidesGPT has a 2023 update compared to ChatGPT which dates from 2021. What are the important improvements between the two versions?
J.T. It’s the same principle. The difference is that you pay OpenAI, the ChatGPT access toolbox, to use an improved version of the one offered by ChatGPT for free. We use GPT 3.5 Turbo which is paid. We pay each time one of our users comes to test our tool. This allows us to be up to date every week. Indeed, we check the sources every week, which ChatGPT does not do in its free version.
Planet. Is there a paid version of your tool?
J.T.No, there is no paid version of this tool. This is part of our mission of public utility because we have been labeled social impact startup by FranceDigital and the Banque Publique d’Investissement (BPI) for four years. We are therefore participating in a better circulation of information and better availability of the latter free of charge to the general public.
We also have a paid service to solve other problems since there are two others in the non-use of aid apart from the lack of information:
These phenomena are brakes. Thanks to our advisers available on our paid administrative support service, users who wish to do so can speak to an adviser trained in-house. He specializes in all administrative procedures that relate to the purchasing power and daily life of users, including the reduction of daily expenses that they do not have time to take care of. This service will remain chargeable and ensures the survival of the company since we are not yet financed by the State. AidesGPT will remain free.
Apart from the free service, the emphasis is on the accuracy that this tool can provide. How does he acquire it?
Planet. You mention experts in charge of verifying sources, who are they?
J. T. It could be lawyers from our team. These are those who respond to user comments. There are also advisors who follow clients and check that the sources are up to date. We have a large database of 15,000 internal questions and answers which is supplied by us and 6,600 documents from official sources. Our team regularly checks that the sources are up to date.
Planet. If I request your AidesGPT service, how is a typical exchange on the site?
J.T. The link to access AidesGPT is still not very visible, but once you click on it, you are asked for a quick registration. You must then provide a first name, last name, email address and password. Once you have provided these details, you have access to the tool and can ask any questions you wish. For example, you can ask if you are entitled to help buying a computer as an apprentice. The tool will provide an answer. His answers may be less specific at first. An artificial intelligence is a service that learns, that is to say that it will improve as it is used. It then becomes more and more precise.
In constant progress, artificial intelligence is enriched as it is used. But how is its development envisaged?
Planet. Do you have an app available for AidesGPT?
J.T. No, there is no application, but we are working on it.
Planet. Do you want to implement other devices in the next few years?
J.T. No, we are already present abroad, but we are concentrating on this mission. AidesGPT and our aides simulator represent a heavy workload. For the moment, we do not intend to develop other areas of presence. The State is responsible for face-to-face service with reception points. We complement each other well. In addition, we also have an offer for companies called “my employee aid”. We work with several companies that have a large proportion of non-executive employees and that want to offer this administrative and social support service to their employees. The company subsidizes the service so their employees can access it for free.
Planet. Has there been a jump in the number of registrations on your site since the launch of artificial intelligence?
J.T. Indeed, the traffic was multiplied by three at the time of the exit. We hope that with this launch, we will be able to open up new opportunities for collaboration with the public sector. We have been discussing for a while with the Caisse des Dépôts disability branch. The objective is to facilitate access to the aid system for people with disabilities. It would therefore be a support tool that facilitates work with public bodies.
