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Alleged fraudster got $10 million in royalties using robots to stream AI-made music

A man is facing fraud charges after being accused of uploading hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to streaming services and using bots to play them billions of times. Michael Smith is said to have received over $10 million in royalties through the scheme.

A North Carolina man is facing fraud charges after allegedly uploading hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to streaming services and using bots to play them billions of times. In exchange for a cut of revenue, the CEO allegedly provided thousands of tracks per week to Smith, who is said to have randomly generated song titles and artist names for the audio files. Matt Farley has written, recorded and uploaded tens of thousands of songs to streaming services about anything and everything people might search for, from celebrities and marriage proposals to many tunes about poop.

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