Michael Smith has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for a royalty fraud scheme involving artificial intelligence (AI)-generated songs and automated streams. He was also ordered to repay $8.09 million.
The sentence includes two years of supervised release, involving monitoring and restrictions on his freedom. Prosecutors described the case as the first criminal prosecution for AI-assisted streaming fraud.
“Michael Smith exploited super intelligence technology to generate a fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald. “By flooding music streaming platforms with automated bots in the place of consumers, and fake songs in the place of creativity, Smith robbed millions in royalty payments from genuine artists and their fans.”
The operation ran for about seven years, between 2017 and 2024, and involved:
- Hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs.
- 10,000 automated bot accounts, made to appear legitimate through fraudulently obtained debit cards and fake email addresses.
- Billions of plays generated by bots.
Smith distributed the automated streams across thousands of tracks, allowing the scheme to avoid detection for seven years while collecting royalties fraudulently.
During one measured period, the operation reportedly produced more streams on YouTube Music than Taylor Swift’s entire catalog.
