this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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1093
Man Arrested for Creating Fake Bands With AI, Then Making $10 Million by Listening to Their Songs With Bots (futurism.com)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The songs that the AI CEO provided to Smith originally had file names full of randomized numbers and letters such as "n_7a2b2d74-1621-4385-895d-b1e4af78d860.mp3," the DOJ noted in its detailed press release.

When uploading them to streaming platforms, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music, the man would then change the songs' names to words like "Zygotes," "Zygotic," and "Zyme Bedewing," whatever that is.

The artist naming convention also followed a somewhat similar pattern, with names ranging from the normal-sounding "Calvin Mann" to head-scratchers like "Calorie Event," "Calms Scorching," and "Calypso Xored."

To manufacture streams for these fake songs, Smith allegedly used bots that stream the songs billions of times without any real person listening. As with similar schemes, the bots' meaningless streams were ultimately converted to royalty paychecks for the people behind them.

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[–] [email protected] 484 points 7 months ago (6 children)

So why arrested? This is what AI is for right? Oh, he screwed over the wrong people didn't he?

[–] [email protected] 188 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Or screwed everyone over too little; if he had screwed everyone for ten billion he would be heralded as a genius.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 7 months ago

Would been on the cover of Forbes.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

He was arrested because he faked a ton of information related to his accounts to make it look like many people were doing it. I love that he gamed the system, but also it sounds like he totally committed financial fraud while doing so.

There are other people who have gamed the system without also committing fraud

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

He didn't get arrested for AI generated music. He got arrested for faking multiple accounts to upload music and using bots to generate fake listens, thus stealing millions of dollars. If he did the same thing with music he actually wrote and played, he would still be arrested.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Exactly. He “stole” millions from companies stealing billions, and thus was eaten.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I don't think the illegal part has anything to do with the AI

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

This is going to be something like fraud, larceny, etc.