Complex(@Complex):In the first federally prosecuted case of AI-assisted music streaming fraud, a North Carolina man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after using AI-generated songs and thousands of bot accounts to steal more than $8 million in music royalties. Michael Smith used as many as 10,000 bots to stream his music billions of times, even generating more streams on YouTube Music in one month than Taylor Swift’s entire catalog received through family plans. 📷 WBTV

2026.10.12 17:47

In the first federally prosecuted case of AI-assisted music streaming fraud, a North Carolina man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after using AI-generated songs and thousands of bot accounts to steal more than $8 million in music royalties. Michael Smith used as many as 10,000 bots to stream his music billions of times, even generating more streams on YouTube Music in one month than Taylor Swift’s entire catalog received through family plans. 📷 WBTV