Shanghai's First Case of Stealing Large-Model Computing Power Is Sentenced: Man Who Used AI to Forge Signatures for Profit Jailed

November 3 — According to The Paper, the Shanghai Xuhui District Court sentenced a man surnamed Zong to three years in prison with a three-year reprieve and a fine of 40,000 yuan for the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. The case is Shanghai's first involving the use of AI to forge signatures and steal large-model computing power. Zong found an interface on a large-model aggregation platform that was not open to the public, built his own relay website, and resold AI image-generation and video-generation services at low prices. He used AI to write scripts that registered accounts in bulk to harvest sign-up bonus credits, bypassing IP-based registration limits and forging electronic signature verification. He illegally called the interface more than 290,000 times in total, earning over 34,000 yuan in illicit proceeds. The victim platform once saw more than 4 million accounts registered from the same IP in a short period, and it reported the matter to police in March this year.