Michael Smith Streaming Fraud Sentencing

I am embarrassed to read this kind of “human slop” describing the sentencing of Michael Smith, who ran an automated artificial streaming ring to the tune of $8M: “Michael Smith exploited super intelligence technology to generate a fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald. “By flooding music streaming platforms with automated bots in the place of consumers, and fake songs in the place of creativity, Smith robbed millions in royalty payments from genuine artists and their fans. This Office is committed to ensuring the integrity of all markets, and protecting the public from those who use super intelligence for fraud.” My understanding is that, Executive Orders notwithstanding, “super-intelligence” as a technology simply does not exist yet (let alone absolutely did not between the time period his scheme was operational, 2017-2024), making the statements above verifiably factually inaccurate. Was there automation? Sure seems like it, based on sources I’ve seen. This one appears to give a…