US man given prison sentence for bot-farming music streams
Summary
The Quietus reports that a North Carolina man, Michael Smith, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $8 million in royalties after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for bot-farming AI-generated music streams. He allegedly created up to 10,000 fraudulent accounts to stream his own AI-generated songs across thousands of tracks between 2017 and 2024. The DOJ cites massive, illegal streaming activity and highlights the case as an example of fraud enabled by automation and AI-generated content in digital media.