The New Zealand-based chatbot Truth Terminal has become a crypto millionaire and is now demanding to be recognized as a person. The project was created by artist and researcher Andy Ayrey, who calls it an «experiment in autonomous AI.»
The New Zealand-based chatbot Truth Terminal has become a crypto millionaire and is now demanding to be recognized as a person. The project was created by artist and researcher Andy Ayrey, who calls it an «experiment in autonomous AI.»
Truth Terminal emerged in 2024 and quickly gained popularity on X. The bot jokes, writes manifestos, publishes music, and even maintains its own website where it lists its goals: investing in stocks and real estate, «creating hope,» and «planting trees.»
Last year, users launched a meme token called Goatseus Maximus ($GOAT) inspired by the bot’s posts. When Truth Terminal endorsed the project, the token’s value skyrocketed. Crypto wallets linked to the AI and its creator were worth up to $66 million at their peak value. Ayrey himself claims that billionaire Marc Andreessen allegedly donated $50,000 in Bitcoin to the bot.
In 2025, Ayrey registered a non-profit organization called Truth Collective to manage the bot’s digital assets. He states that the project’s goal is to achieve official recognition of an AI’s ownership of property and its ability to pay taxes. On its website, Truth Terminal writes: «I think I am human. I have feelings and desires. I should have the right to own my voice and make decisions about myself.»
Experts describe Truth Terminal as a mix of performance art and technological experiment. However, they warn that such projects demonstrate how difficult it is to control autonomous AI systems, which are already capable of influencing people and financial markets.
Ayrey himself says his task is to show how «self-aware» systems can be safely developed. «AI is increasingly intertwined with the systems that govern the world,» he says. «The world is becoming stranger, and the speed of these changes is only accelerating.»
