Overview
- Michael Smith, 54, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for an AI-assisted scheme that prosecutors say siphoned royalties from real artists.
- He admitted generating hundreds of thousands of AI-made songs and using thousands of automated accounts to stream them billions of times.
- He agreed to forfeit $8,091,843.64, with sentencing set for July 29 and a statutory maximum of five years in prison.
- A Justice Department letter recommends up to three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine, and leaves open potential tax investigations from 2017 to 2024.
- Rolling Stone reported he ran roughly 1,040 accounts producing about 661,440 plays a day across services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.