GoKawiilNorth Carolina man gets 18 months for AI music streaming fraud scheme
Michael Smith, 54, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to running a seven-year scheme that used AI-generated songs and bot accounts to defraud streaming platforms. The Justice Department said Smith created thousands of fake accounts on services like Spotify and Apple Music using stolen identities and fraudulent debit cards, then used automation to stream hundreds of thousands of AI-generated tracks billions of times. In one month alone, April 2023, his fake songs reportedly generated 80.9 million streams, more than Taylor Swift's entire catalog during the same period.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The case marks the first US criminal prosecution for AI-assisted streaming fraud, according to the DOJ, signaling that law enforcement is beginning to target a previously obscure form of royalty theft enabled by generative AI tools. It may prompt streaming platforms to scrutinize detection systems more closely, since the scheme reportedly evaded notice for seven years by spreading streams across many songs rather than concentrating them.
- Michael Smith received 18 months for a scheme using AI songs and bot accounts to steal streaming royalties.
- The fraud ran undetected from 2017 to 2024, generating billions of fake streams across hundreds of thousands of AI-made tracks.
- DOJ says this is the first US criminal case involving AI-assisted streaming fraud.
Source: arstechnica.com, 2026-10-07
Published there as: “Outstreaming Taylor Swift is easy with 10K bots and AI songs, fraudster admits”
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