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Man Arrested for Creating Fake Bands With AI, Then Making $10 Million by Listening to Their Songs With Bots (futurism.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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An alleged scammer has been arrested under suspicion that he used AI to create a wild number of fake bands — and fake music to go with them — and faking untold streams with more bots to earn millions in ill-gotten revenue.

In a press release, the Department of Justice announced that investigators have arrested 52-year-old North Carolina man Michael Smith, who has been charged with a purportedly seven-year scheme that involved using his real-life music skills to make more than $10 million in royalties.

Indicted on three counts involving money laundering and wire fraud, the Charlotte-area man faces a maximum of 20 years per charge.

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[–] sleen@lemmy.zip 110 points 2 months ago (14 children)

Government when the elites use loopholes and do devious shit:

I sleep

Government when the peasants use loopholes:

Straight to jail

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 29 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (13 children)

TBF, this particular loophole doesn't take any money from the streaming services. Quite the opposite, it massively inflates their stats.

And while it does siphon money from the big labels, it also impacts small indie artists just trying to earn enough from each play to get to eat.

Yeah, this guy is in trouble because he stepped on some big toes, but he curb-stomped a bunch of little guys, too.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 months ago

Agreed. As a person that has released music, I hate this guy and would like the book thrown at him and anyone mass releasing shitty AI music.. It might not be a big corpo doing it, but it's still fucking creatives over.

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