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In the United States, the first criminal scheme with the streaming of AI music has been revealed.
In the United States, the first criminal scheme using artificial intelligence for fraud in the music industry has been uncovered. Federal authorities have charged Michael Smith with a large-scale scam involving the creation of hundreds of thousands of songs using AI and their subsequent artificial eavesdropping to obtain illegal royalties.
Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced that Smith was charged with three counts. According to the investigation, the accused developed a complex scheme, within which he created a huge number of tracks using artificial intelligence. He then used automated programs (bots) to listen to these songs repeatedly on popular streaming platforms.
Investigators found that Smith created thousands of fake accounts on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music. With the help of special software, he configured these accounts to continuously play his songs. At the peak of his activity, the scammer generated more than 660 thousand listens daily, which brought him over $1.2 million in annual income from royalties.
Smith distributed automated auditions across thousands of songs to avoid detection. A billion streams of a single track would have aroused suspicion, but the same activity, distributed among tens of thousands of songs, remained unnoticed. The scammer has repeatedly stressed the critical importance of a large number of songs to his scheme. In December 2018, he wrote to accomplices: "We need to get a TON of songs very quickly to get around anti-fraud policies." To solve this problem, Smith turned to artificial intelligence, starting a collaboration in 2018 with a company specializing in creating music using AI. Soon, she was delivering him thousands of auto-generated tracks weekly. In one email, Smith's partner candidly admitted, "We don't make 'music,' we create 'instant music.'"
To disguise the artificial origin of the tracks, Smith created randomly generated song titles and artist names. For example, among the names there were such as "Zygophyllum", "Zygopteris", "Zygotic Lanie", and among the names of "artists" - "Calliope Bloom", "Calm Innovation", "Calvin Mann".
The scammer has repeatedly provided false information to streaming platforms, violating their terms of use. He created the illusion that real users were behind the bots, when in fact the accounts were programmed to play his music repeatedly.
As a result of this massive scam, Michael Smith managed to illegally obtain more than $10 million in royalties. Acting Assistant Director of the FBI's New York Office, Christy M. Curtis, stressed that the actions of the defendant damaged the integrity of the music industry and the rights of real artists.
Smith's arrest took place in North Carolina. Prosecutor Williams noted that thanks to the work of the FBI and prosecutors, the defendant will have to "meet the music" - answer for his illegal actions before the law.
Source
In the United States, the first criminal scheme using artificial intelligence for fraud in the music industry has been uncovered. Federal authorities have charged Michael Smith with a large-scale scam involving the creation of hundreds of thousands of songs using AI and their subsequent artificial eavesdropping to obtain illegal royalties.
Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced that Smith was charged with three counts. According to the investigation, the accused developed a complex scheme, within which he created a huge number of tracks using artificial intelligence. He then used automated programs (bots) to listen to these songs repeatedly on popular streaming platforms.
Investigators found that Smith created thousands of fake accounts on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music. With the help of special software, he configured these accounts to continuously play his songs. At the peak of his activity, the scammer generated more than 660 thousand listens daily, which brought him over $1.2 million in annual income from royalties.
Smith distributed automated auditions across thousands of songs to avoid detection. A billion streams of a single track would have aroused suspicion, but the same activity, distributed among tens of thousands of songs, remained unnoticed. The scammer has repeatedly stressed the critical importance of a large number of songs to his scheme. In December 2018, he wrote to accomplices: "We need to get a TON of songs very quickly to get around anti-fraud policies." To solve this problem, Smith turned to artificial intelligence, starting a collaboration in 2018 with a company specializing in creating music using AI. Soon, she was delivering him thousands of auto-generated tracks weekly. In one email, Smith's partner candidly admitted, "We don't make 'music,' we create 'instant music.'"
To disguise the artificial origin of the tracks, Smith created randomly generated song titles and artist names. For example, among the names there were such as "Zygophyllum", "Zygopteris", "Zygotic Lanie", and among the names of "artists" - "Calliope Bloom", "Calm Innovation", "Calvin Mann".
The scammer has repeatedly provided false information to streaming platforms, violating their terms of use. He created the illusion that real users were behind the bots, when in fact the accounts were programmed to play his music repeatedly.
As a result of this massive scam, Michael Smith managed to illegally obtain more than $10 million in royalties. Acting Assistant Director of the FBI's New York Office, Christy M. Curtis, stressed that the actions of the defendant damaged the integrity of the music industry and the rights of real artists.
Smith's arrest took place in North Carolina. Prosecutor Williams noted that thanks to the work of the FBI and prosecutors, the defendant will have to "meet the music" - answer for his illegal actions before the law.
Source
