A North Carolina man, Michael Smith, 54, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, ordered to forfeit more than $8 million and given two years of supervised release after pleading guilty in 2024 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for using artificial intelligence and automated accounts to siphon streaming royalties. Prosecutors characterized the case as the Justice Department’s first criminal prosecution of A.I.-assisted music streaming fraud, saying Smith substituted automated listeners for real consumers and fake songs for creative work, diverting millions in payments away from legitimate artists.
Smith built thousands of streaming accounts from purchased email addresses and ran software that looped A.I.-generated tracks under artist names like Callous Post and Calorie Screams, at times using as many as 10,000 bots simultaneously. His network reportedly produced billions of streams through 2024; internal calculations he circulated projected 661,440 streams per day (about $3,307 daily and roughly $1.2 million a year), and he later claimed four billion streams and $12 million in royalties. By mid-2019 he was reportedly earning about $110,000 a month and sharing proceeds with co-conspirators. His attorney said he is profoundly sorry and intends to make amends.
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