The first case of power theft using a large model in Shanghai has been sentenced, and the man received a three-year suspended sentence

According to a report by The Paper, the People's Court of Xuhui District, Shanghai, sentenced a certain Zong to three years in prison, with a three-year probation, for the crime of illegally obtaining data from a computer information system, and imposed a fine of 40,000 yuan. This case is the first in Shanghai involving the use of AI to forge signatures and misuse large model computing power. Reporters from The Paper learned from the People's Procuratorate of Xuhui District, Shanghai, that by the time of the incident, Zong had illegally accessed the AI platform's interface over 290,000 times, with illegal gains exceeding 34,000 yuan.

The procuratorial authorities introduced that in December 2025, after self-learning to access the AI platform's interface, Zong targeted a large model aggregation platform operated by an artificial intelligence company. He found an interface that was not open to the public and built a transit website to resell AI drawing and video generation services at low prices, while actually using the paid computing power of that platform in the background. He used AI to write an automated registration script, batch registering nearly 300,000 free accounts to obtain bonus points for new users, and bypassed IP registration restrictions.

In January of this year, after the platform added electronic signature verification, Zong continued to use AI tools to create scripts to forge signatures and persistently call the interface. Two video and graphic design applications under the victim company saw over 4 million accounts registered from the same IP in a short period. After reporting the case in March this year, Zong was arrested. The prosecuting attorney stated that the involved platform had never provided API paid access services to the public, and the user agreement explicitly prohibited automated scraping and bypassing verification.