Recently, Michael Smith, a musician from North Carolina, USA, has been charged with multiple offenses for allegedly manipulating music streaming platforms through artificial intelligence (AI).
He is accused of orchestrating a sophisticated scheme that used AI to generate music and earn over $10 million in royalties on music streaming platforms by inflating the number of listeners with fake accounts.
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According to the indictment, from 2017 to 2024, Smith created hundreds of thousands of computer-generated songs and used automated bots to boost their play counts, earning him about $1.2 million in royalties each year from these fake streaming numbers.
Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, stated at a press conference that Smith played these AI-generated songs billions of times through fake play counts, stealing royalties that should have gone to legitimate musicians and composers. Although each play earned only a few cents, the sheer volume of plays resulted in significant illegal profits for Smith. He even instructed his accomplices to quickly release a large amount of content to bypass the platform's anti-fraud policies.
In 2018, Smith collaborated with the CEO of an AI music company and a music promoter to create hundreds of thousands of songs and stream them through fake accounts. Although these songs might not be considered "real music" in essence, Smith's team referred to their experiment as "instant music." Despite the streaming platform's vigilance against suspicious activities, Smith still denied any wrongdoing, claiming he did not artificially inflate play counts.
The indictment mentions some absurd AI-generated songs with titles like "Zygophyllaceae" and "Zymotechnical," performed by fictitious artists such as "Calypso Xored" and "Camel Edible." Although these songs were meaningless, they received a high number of plays due to Smith's bot network. Notably, in a February 2024 email, Smith boasted that his music had generated over 4 billion plays and $12 million in royalties since 2019.
Currently, each charge Smith faces, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to launder money, could result in a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. Williams expressed gratitude to the FBI and prosecutors for their efforts, stating that Smith will finally be held accountable for his actions.
Key Points:
- 🎶 Michael Smith is accused of defrauding over $10 million in music royalties using AI and fake accounts.
- 🤖 From 2017 to 2024, Smith released hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs, earning substantial profits from them.
- ⚖️ Each charge could result in a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, with the judicial department vowing to hold Smith accountable for his actions.