Craig Wright Ordered to Pay £225,000 in Fines for Misusing AI to Appeal Earlier Ruling

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, was fined £225,000 by a London court for improperly using AI

An Australian computer scientist, Craig Wright, known for his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto, was ordered by a London court to pay £225,000 in legal costs to crypto groups for improperly using artificial intelligence (AI) while attempting to appeal an earlier ruling by the High Court that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, reports Sipo Li for the Evening Standard.

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.

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

On Thursday, Lord Justice Arnold ruled that Wright will pay £100,000 to cover COPA’s costs and £125,000 for the other crypto developers’ costs. The judge stated that the fines are appropriate as Wright’s appeal lacked merit.

According to Lord Justice Arnold, the narrative structure of the appellant’s application was not an unaltering factor in making the present application.

It was stated that Wright used AI models to compose his appeal. As a result of the 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 Still in its infancy regarding legal defence, the AI model used out-of-date case law to present Wright’s appeal.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, who presided over cases involving cryptocurrency inventor Craig Wright, refused an application by Wright for permission to appeal last year’s High Court ruling that Wright was not the creator of Bitcoin.

Arnold J. held that the appeal would be incompetent because it was unnecessarily complicated and disproportionate to the case, and 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.

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).

It was also reported that 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-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”.