Musician Charged with $10M Music Streaming Fraud Aided by AI

North Carolina musician Michael Smith was charged in a music streaming fraud scheme that used artificial intelligence to create songs and bots for streams, obtaining over $10 million in royalties. He faces charges including wire fraud and money laundering, with a potential max sentence of 20 years.

• Michael Smith utilized AI to create hundreds of thousands of songs.
• Bots were used to stream AI-generated songs billions of times.
• Fraudulent royalty earnings exceeded $10 million.
• First criminal case involving artificially inflated music streaming.
• Indictment includes charges of wire fraud and money laundering.