 
 
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 Still in its infancy regarding legal defence, the AI model used out-of-date case law to present Wright’s appeal.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 Wright’s 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.
Thursday’s 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.
“First, Dr Wright has brought a large number of baseless legal actions”, wrote Hough, “founded on lies and backed up with copious forgeries”.
“Secondly, in those actions he has claimed huge sums against a large number of individuals and companies, causing them serious distress, inconvenience and cost”.
“Thirdly, his actions have taken up very significant court resources, running to nearly 100 court days in this jurisdiction”.
“The undisputed consequence of his claims has been significant disruption to innovation in an important industry There is a clear and serious risk of him repeating his campaign of litigation in one form or another”.
Phil Sherrell, Bird & Bird Partner, representing Copa, said Wright’s use of AI resulted in many false statements and use of out of date case law.
“This is a stark warning to litigants”, said Sherrell, “and in particular litigants in person, about the risks of using generative AI tools to create court documents”.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/craig-wright-terrorized-bitcoin-groups-with-ai-ordered-to-pay-225000-in-legal-fees/