Michael Smith, a musician from North Carolina, has been charged with orchestrating a scheme that allegedly raked in over $10 million through AI-generated music streams. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York claims Smith used artificial intelligence to create hundreds of thousands of songs and deployed bots to stream these tracks billions of times.

Prosecutors allege that Smith utilized up to 10,000 bot accounts to inflate streaming numbers. These tracks were supposedly supplied by an anonymous AI music company CEO under a deal providing "instant music" monthly. In return, Smith collected substantial streaming revenue and metadata.

Smith was taken into custody on September 4th and is set to face a Magistrate Judge in North Carolina soon. US Attorney Damian Williams remarked, “As alleged, Michael Smith fraudulently streamed songs created with artificial intelligence billions of times in order to steal royalties.”

This unprecedented case highlights concerns about artificially inflated streaming metrics—a growing issue within the industry. If convicted, Smith could potentially face decades behind bars.

The implications for musicians are profound as this case sets a new precedent for how digital manipulation might be tackled legally moving forward.