Man gets 18 months for AI streaming fraud using 10,000 bots and AI-generated songs
Ars Technica AI · rss · 2026-10-08
The US Department of Justice says Michael Smith, a 54-year-old North Carolina man, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to an AI-assisted streaming fraud scheme — the first American criminally charged for it. He used roughly 10,000 bots to stream AI-generated songs, stealing millions from music streaming platforms over seven years before being charged in 2024.
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