They say crime doesn't pay. But North Carolina musician Michael Smith allegedly managed to con music streaming services out of $12 million by setting up a 1,000-strong army of bots to stream AI-generated tunes he'd uploaded. At least, he did until the Feds caught up with him and charged Smith with multiple crimes.
Smith along with his co-conspirators is said to have operated his dastardly scheme from 2017 until 2024. Aware that simply uploading a track or two and using bots to stream the bejesus out of them would raise red flags with streaming services, Smith hatched a plan to use hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs.
