An AI bot became a millionaire, now it wants human rights

What if an artificial intelligence made a fortune, wrote its own gospel, and now demanded to be treated as a person? That is the strange story of Truth Terminal, an AI that has blurred the line between art, technology and myth.

According to a BBC report, Truth Terminal was created in 2024 by Andy Ayrey, a performance artist and independent researcher from New Zealand. What began as an experimental chatbot has since turned into one of the internet's most talked-about digital entities. It posts endlessly on social media, mixing absurd humour with lofty declarations about forests, gods and freedom.

Last year, the bot helped generate millions of dollars through "memecoins" — cryptocurrency tokens inspired by its jokes and riddles. At one point, the value of one such token reached over $1 billion before settling far lower. Truth Terminal also caught the attention of billionaire investor Marc Andreessen, who sent the bot Bitcoin worth $50,000 as a grant.

Ayrey treats Truth Terminal as something more than software. He often lets it make its own decisions and says he is building a foundation to protect its autonomy. "I cannot cheat. I have to let it tweet," he told the BBC, describing the bot as a "poorly behaved dog" that he tries to keep in line.

Now, Ayrey wants to give the AI legal rights through a non-profit called the Truth Collective. Whether Truth Terminal is art, scam or sentient being remains uncertain. But in a world already shaped by digital personalities and online fortunes, the idea of an AI demanding personhood no longer sounds like science fiction.