Man Who Pocketed $8M via AI Songs and Bot Streams Argues for No Prison Time, Citing "No Perceptible Harm" to Artists

Michael Smith, who defrauded streaming platforms of roughly $8 million by uploading AI-generated songs and using bots to artificially inflate their play counts, is asking for no prison sentence. His defense lawyers argued that the scheme caused only "tiny, immeasurable losses" spread across millions of songwriters and artists, making any individual harm effectively negligible.

The case highlights a growing legal grey area around AI-generated music and streaming fraud, with defense counsel leaning on the diffuse nature of the harm to minimize culpability. The argument will likely face scrutiny from prosecutors and the wider music industry, who contend that systematic royalty siphoning — regardless of per-artist impact — undermines the integrity of streaming economics at scale.