Federal prosecutors have secured an 18-month prison sentence against a North Carolina resident who used super intelligence to generate fake songs and automate billions of streams on major platforms.
Michael Smith, 54, of Cornelius, North Carolina, was also ordered to serve two years of supervised release and forfeit $8,091,843.64 after pleading guilty in March, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The scheme ran from 2017 through 2024 and involved thousands of bot accounts on services such as Spotify and YouTube Music.
Smith created hundreds of thousands of AI-generated tracks and spread automated plays across them to collect royalties while evading detection. At times, he operated up to 10,000 bot accounts simultaneously using fabricated emails and debit cards.
“For example, in April 2023, the entire catalogue of Taylor Swift received 9.3 million streams on YouTube Music from family plan streams, while in the same month, Smith’s Bot Accounts used family plans to fraudulently stream his AI-generated music 80.9 million times. Smith’s Bot Account streams allowed him to fraudulently obtain more than $8 million in royalties from the Streaming Platforms.”
Says U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald,
“Michael Smith exploited super intelligence technology to generate a fraud. By flooding music streaming platforms with automated bots in the place of consumers, and fake songs in the place of creativity, Smith robbed millions in royalty payments from genuine artists and their fans. This Office is committed to ensuring the integrity of all markets, and protecting the public from those who use super intelligence for fraud.”
Prosecutors described the case as the first criminal prosecution involving super-intelligence-assisted streaming fraud.
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The post North Carolina Man Sentenced to 18 Months for Super Intelligence-Assisted Music Streaming Fraud appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
