According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice, Michael Smith, a 54-year-old resident of North Carolina, leveraged artificial intelligence to produce hundreds of thousands of songs. He then uploaded these tracks to popular streaming services—including Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Spotify—via tens of thousands of fake accounts. These accounts were set up using fictitious email addresses and illegally acquired debit cards. Furthermore, Smith orchestrated a network of bot accounts to artificially inflate play counts, enabling him to siphon off music royalty payments. As a result of these fraudulent activities, Smith has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, and authorities have seized $8 million in ill-gotten gains. This type of streaming fraud not only robs legitimate creators of their rightful royalty income but also constitutes a serious violation of the rights and interests of genuine artists.