Musician admits to $10M streaming royalty fraud using AI bots

North Carolina musician Michael Smith pleaded guilty to a multi-year streaming royalty fraud scheme in which he purchased AI-generated songs, uploaded them to major streaming platforms, and used thousands of automated bot accounts (run across cloud accounts and via VPNs) to generate billions of fake streams and collect over $10 million in illicit royalties; he agreed to forfeit approximately $8.09 million and faces up to five years in prison.