this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
1091 points (99.0% liked)

Technology

59572 readers
3098 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
L3s@fry.gs
L4s@fry.gs
L4s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
1091
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 ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to c/technology@lemmy.world
229 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

most lilely money laundering. Not really a new scam just adding AI to an old one

https://youtu.be/et8R5i5UEjY

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's not money laundering, they were creating fake engagement and getting advertising revenue out of it.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Could be if the revenue was paid out to non existing aliasses and then transferred to himself.

But getting paid royalties directly by Spotify would not need to be laundered as it's legit money for the irs.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah, it's just a good old fashioned grift by the sound of it.

[–] HappyTimeHarry@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

getting bots to fake engagement for a profit is money laundering, believe it or not. its a pretty vague crime that basically amounts to getting paid in a way thats deceptive.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

Hmm. If that's true, the legal definition and the definition we typically use are very different.