Man pleads guilty to $8M AI-generated music scheme

A North Carolina man, Michael Smith, pleaded guilty to using AI-generated songs and thousands of bot accounts to fraudulently stream music across major platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, siphoning over $8 million in royalties between 2017 and 2024. He deployed up to 10,000 fake accounts and used VPNs to avoid detection, while streaming platforms are now expanding AI detection tools and metadata labeling in response to growing synthetic content.