Shanghai man sentenced for hacking AI platform to sell stolen compute
A Shanghai court has sentenced an individual to three years of probation for using AI automation to exploit an AI platform's API and resell its computing power.
A Shanghai court recently delivered a verdict in the city's first case involving the use of AI to forge credentials and steal computing power from an AI aggregator platform. The perpetrator used AI-driven automation to bypass security protocols, creating over 300,000 accounts to mask his activity.
The individual developed a third-party website that offered AI-generated media services to customers, while using the underlying infrastructure of the victimized company without authorization. The platform’s security team reported that the perpetrator even used AI scripts to automatically forge digital signatures required by the platform's upgraded security verification systems.
The activity was uncovered in March after the company detected over four million user registrations linked to a single IP address. Investigation revealed the perpetrator performed roughly 290,000 unauthorized API calls, generating approximately 34,000 yuan in illicit profit. The court convicted the individual of illegally obtaining computer information system data, issuing a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 40,000 yuan.