A music producer has been arrested and charged with a multi-million dollar scam involving the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate and stream music.
A producer going by the name Michael Smith has been recently arrested for allegedly coding AI bots to inflate streams of his tracks on popular streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Smith is accused of creating thousands of fake accounts on these platforms to artificially elevate the number of streams, and not only that, he’s also under investigation for doing this to completely AI-generated songs. This would’ve allowed him to profit upwards of $10 million in royalties, by abusing the pay system of these streaming platforms.
The first method he used was boosting plays on his own songs. But once he was in hot waters, he turned to generating thousands of AI musical pieces to achieve similar results while staying under the radar. “We need to get a TON of songs fast to make this work around the anti fraud policies these guys are all using now”, he wrote to two co-conspirators, according to the indictment.
Authorities believe that Smith worked with an AI music company to produce an absurd amount of music, at least since 2018. He also used a complex system of fake email addresses, VPNs, and automated software to hide their tracks. The scam was uncovered when authorities noticed an unusually high volume of streams for certain songs. Investigations revealed that many of these streams were coming from fake accounts.
Smith faces charges of money laundering, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, they could face a lengthy prison sentence.
His case is once again a sign of the legal troubles to come tied to AI in the very near future. You don’t have to look very far to see the good and the bad that comes with AI peeking through everyday life, as, while some producers such as ilan Bluestone have used AI to generate parts of tracks ultimately directed and polished by the human ear, we’re also being bombarded with “fake” music too.
[H/T] Variety
*Cover image: Jordan Mansfield
