Faker’s Ball An alleged scammer has been arrested under suspicion that he used AI to create a wild number of fake bands — and fake music to go with them — and faking untold streams with more bots to earn millions in ill-gotten revenue. In a press release, the Department of Justice announced that investigators have arrested 52-year-old North Carolina man Michael Smith, who has been charged with a purportedly seven-year scheme that involved using his real-life music skills to make more than $10 million in royalties. Indicted on three counts involving money laundering and wire fraud, the Charlotte-area man faces a maximum of 20 years per charge. With bona fide artists struggling to make ends meet via music streaming services, Smith allegedly worked with the help of two unnamed accomplices — a music promoter and the CEO of an AI music firm — to create “hundreds of thousands of songs” that he then “fraudulently stream[ed,” the indictment explains. “We need to get a TON of songs fast,” Smith emailed his alleged co-conspirators in late 2018, “to make this work around the anti-fraud policies these guys are all using now.” Around that same time, the CEO of the AI music company, which also has not been named, began allegedly providing the musician with “thousands of songs” on a weekly basis. Smith in turn would then use automation to generate tons of listens for the crappy tunes. “Keep in mind what we’re doing musically here,” the CEO wrote in an email to…Man Arrested for Creating Fake Bands With AI, Then Making $10 Million by Listening to Their Songs With Bots