AI generated music listened to by AI bots leads to a fraud conviction.

A North Carolina man, Michael Smith, pleaded guilty to running a large‑scale music streaming fraud scheme that used artificial intelligence and automated bot accounts to steal millions of dollars in royalties from major streaming platforms.

Smith created thousands of AI‑generated songs and then used networks of automated bots to stream them on platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. The bots inflated play counts into the billions.

According to US prosecutors, the fraud ran from 2017 to 2024, generating as many as 661,000 fake streams per day and produced more than $8 million in illicit royalties.

Smith spread the streams across thousands of different tracks rather than concentrating them on a few popular songs.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud with a plea deal. This is one of the first successful US prosecutions involving AI‑enabled music fraud.

Under the deal, he faces up to five years in prison and has will forfeit more than $8 million.

The case is a warning to the music industry about how generative AI and automation can be abused at scale, and the time it takes to legislate and prosecute those who benefit.

SOURCE

Article: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/21/man-pleads-guilty-music-streaming-fraud-ai