Technology

59651 readers

2643 users here now

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

Our Rules

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

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

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

218 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

[–] AstralPath@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Y'know this guy seems intelligent enough to come up with this scheme, but not intelligent enough to keep a low profile. I honestly don't understand that.

Personally, I'd do the math to pay myself a living wage with this so that my actual work salary is nothing but a cherry on top; manage it so it seems like hype is ebbing and flowing in a natural way. If you ever figure out a way to break the system like this, you should never act in a way that draws attention to yourself.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s like the person who figured out the free gas card hack and let her friends use it. If she’d kept it herself, she’d still get free gas.

[–] person420@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 2 months ago

Just like in this case, it isn't straight forward. She wasn't simply "letting her friends use it", she was selling use of the trick.

[–] emax_gomax@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

I imagine quite a few folks have done this. You don't hear about everyone that got away with it but you definitely hear about those that get caught.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

If you ever figure out a way to break the system like this, you should never act in a way that draws attention to yourself.

There was a guy who robbed banks and he wasn't caught for decades because he just lived an ordinary working-class lifestyle. Cheap little apartment, no fancy car etc. etc.

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Once you have to put that amount of effort and attention in for a reasonable income... you are just doing a job.... a job no-one benefits from. So it won't be satisfying to do. No longer beating the system, just beating yourself.