US successfully jails scammer who used bot farm to outstream Taylor Swift, so why are people still mad?

A North Carolina man has been sentenced after using “super intelligence technology” to artificially inflate streams on his songs, making him almost as popular as Taylor Swift.

Michael Smith, 52, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for using “super intelligence” and bot farms to artificially inflate streams on his songs to return a profit and, in turn, defraud streaming platforms.

Smith took a three-pronged approach to his scheme.

First, he created thousands of fake accounts or bot accounts on the music streaming platforms, which he used to stream music.

He then used software that instructed the bot accounts to continuously stream his own music created using AI or, as the Department of Justice now calls it, “super intelligence.”

It’s unclear whether Smith was a legitimate artist or whether he created music on the basis of fraud.

Finally, Smith would collect royalties accrued from streaming platforms.

These bot accounts streamed Smith’s AI-generated songs billions of times, and the number of tracks Smith owned is reportedly in the hundreds of thousands.

At one point, the popularity of Smith’s music came closer to Taylor Swift's streams, as Smith’s bot account streamed his music 80.9 million times in April 2023, making him roughly $8 million in royalties.

In the same month, Taylor Swift received 9.3 million streams on YouTube Music and family plan streams, the same platforms Smith exploited to make his money.

This is the first instance where someone has been imprisoned for AI-assisted music streaming fraud.

“By flooding music streaming platforms with automated bots in the place of consumers, and fake songs in the place of creativity, Smith robbed millions in royalty payments from genuine artists and their fans,” said US Attorney Jamie McDonald.

Stop trying to make “super intelligence” happen, scream users

While the courts sentence a man to 1 and a half years in prison for AI music fraud, the comments section is preoccupied with the US government's use of “super intelligence.”

The US government ordered all staff to use the term “super intelligence” in its official communications, including court filings, “when appropriate,” according to Bloomberg Law.

And people aren’t pleased with the switch.

“Stop trying to make super intelligence happen. It’s not going to happen,” said one user.

“How many people didn’t bother to read the story due to the ridiculous AI name change?” asked another user.

“That's super! The fact that he used his intelligence to assist in his music streaming fraud,” one user joked.

While fraud is rarely a joking matter, a certain group may be pleased to learn that Smith gave these streaming services a taste of their own medicine.

Spotify, Apple Music accused of stealing from artists

The irony of this case won’t be lost on artists and fans who are familiar with the streaming royalty system used by major services like Apple Music, Spotify, and Deezer.

Many streaming platforms don’t pay artists directly. Instead, they pay distributors or labels, who are then responsible for that payout.

Furthermore, platforms like Spotify pay from a pool, from which each rights holder receives a share, and state that payouts are “not based on a fixed per-stream rate.”

Then the platforms, let's take Spotify as an example, pockets 30% of the royalty payments for themselves.

Streaming services have been criticized for their “unfair” practices while also allegedly stealing from artists.