Craig Wright Terrorized Bitcoin Groups with AI, Ordered to Pay £225,000 in Legal Fees ⋆ ZyCrypto

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Craig Wright “Terrorized” Bitcoin Groups with AI, Ordered to Pay £225,000 in Legal Fees ⋆ ZyCrypto

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, was fined £225,000 by a London court for improperly using AI while attempting to appeal an earlier ruling by the High Court that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto.

In March 2024, a London court ruled that Wright was not Satoshi and had lied extensively during the trial. He was also barred from making any more legal cases against the crypto industry.

COPA (Crypto Open Patent Alliance) and other Bitcoin groups defended themselves in court, and asked the Court of Appeals for Wright to pay their legal costs.

On Thursday, Lord Justice Arnold ordered Wright to pay £100,000 to cover Copa‘s costs and £125,000 for the other crypto developers’ costs as a result of the case.

The judge argued that the fines were appropriate because Wright‘s appeal lacked merit. Wright had used artificial intelligence models to compose his appeal. As a result of AI overuse, his writing was convoluted and, at times, irrelevant to the current case. Still in its infancy regarding legal defence, the AI model used out-of-date case law to present Wright’s appeal.

Lord Justice Arnold dismissed Wright‘s case in the Court of Appeal. Wright attempted to appeal last year’s High Court ruling that Wright was not the creator of Bitcoin. Arnold dismissed Wrights case because it was unnecessarily complicated and disproportionate to the case, at risk of misleading the court with unnecessary information.

In December 2024, Wright was sentenced to 12 months in prison for contempt of court for having issued a new claim of £900 billion related to Bitcoin, even though the court barred him from making any more cases. Lord Justice Arnold presided over that case as well.

Thursdays ruling by the Court of Appeals may be the first case in which a person is ordered to pay costs because of their misuse of artificial intelligence (AI).

Copa asked the court to issue a Civil Restraint Order (CRO) against Wright, to stop him from creating court cases for 3 years.

Jonathan Hough KC, representing Copa, says Wright misused the legal system to “terrorise” his perceived enemies. Hough further requested that the Attorney General extend the restraint order from 3 years to a longer period.

Phil Sherrell, Bird & Bird Partner, representing Copa, said Wrights use of AI resulted in many false statements and use of out of date case law.