The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in music has been a hot topic for a while now, but so far, we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg of implications advanced algorithms can have for the recording industry. While artists speak out against the use of generative AI in the creation of songs and the Recording Academy grapples with its legitimacy for Grammy Awards, courts around the world are now being confronted with the use of AI in schemes aimed at defrauding streaming platforms with AI-generated songs and streams.
According to the Associated Press, one such case currently being litigated revolves around a North Carolina man who created hundreds of thousands of songs using AI, then streamed those songs billions of times to generate over $10 million in royalty payments for himself, cheating legitimate musicians and labels out of potential profits from streamers’ royalty pools. The man, 52-year-old Michael Smith, is charged with fraud and conspiracy, and could face around 60 years in prison if convicted.
By creating thousands of phony accounts on services such as Apple, Spotify, and Tidal, Smith streamed his AI-generated songs upwards of 600,000 times a day. In the federal indictment against him, Smith is quoted as boasting about his profits — over $1 million a year since 2018, when he allegedly launched the conspiracy alongside a music promoter and the chief executive of an AI music company — in an email. He even denied that what he was doing was fraud, when a music distributor questioned him about it.
Whether he genuinely did realize it was fraud or was just covering, it’s clear that the technology has upended the recording industry yet again, and that the potential posed by AI don’t only affect artists.