Federal authorities have filed charges against a North Carolina man for allegedly fraudulently obtaining streaming royalties through a system using bots and AI-generated songs.

The man, identified by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as Michael Smith, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, his indictment was unveiled this week.

North Carolina native Michael Smith “ultimately resorted to artificial intelligence” to obtain the required number of songs for his plan to fraudulently obtain streaming royalties to succeed, prosecutors allege. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File photo / Reuters photos)

Authorities allege that Smith set up “thousands” of “bot accounts” on streaming platforms and automated them to “continuously stream songs he owned” in order to generate royalties that he could collect.

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He “finally resorted to artificial intelligence” to “obtain the necessary number of songs for his plan to succeed,” the law firm claimed.

The AI-generated songs, which he received through the CEO of an AI music company and a music promoter, featured song and artist names that Smith allegedly “randomly generated” to create the false impression that they were made by real musicians, the law firm said.

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The law firm said the royalties Smith earned from his “bot accounts” by streaming “hundreds of thousands” of his AI-generated songs “billions of times” totaled more than $10 million.

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According to prosecutors, the platforms on which he is said to have carried out his plot included Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music.

According to prosecutors, Spotify is one of the platforms on which Michael Smith is said to have carried out his plot. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Smith is also accused of making “numerous false statements” to the streaming platforms.

“The defendant’s alleged scheme targeted the integrity of the music industry by deliberately attempting to circumvent streaming platforms’ policies,” said Acting FBI Director Christie Curtis.

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Each of the three charges carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

“The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” the prosecutor’s press release states.