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International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Politics
Ma. Kyla Morco

Man Who Used AI Songs and Bots to Outstream Taylor Swift Nearly 9 to 1 Jailed for $8M in Royalty Fraud

Michael Smith Taylor Swift United States Prison
Smith’s case highlights the challenge of separating AI-made music from fake streams designed to generate royalties. (Credit: Instagram/@mikesmithinc)

A North Carolina man who used AI-generated songs and thousands of automated accounts to manipulate music streams has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after fraudulently obtaining more than $8 million (£6 million) in royalties. Michael Smith was also ordered to forfeit $8.09 million (£6.12 million) and serve two years of supervised release.

The scale of the scheme was starkest in April 2023, when Smith's bot accounts generated 80.9 million YouTube Music family-plan streams for his AI-generated music, compared with 9.3 million streams for Taylor Swift's entire catalogue in the same category. That put Smith's artificial activity at about 8.7 times Swift's total.

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