AI Is Now Writing Songs, Gaming Streams — and Skipping Your Podcast Ads. Here's the Difference.

AI has had a rough few weeks in the audio world. The case of Michael Smith — a North Carolina musician accused of using AI to generate thousands of fake songs and then fraudulently stream them to collect royalties — is winding through the courts according to RAIN News. It's a story about someone who looked at AI and saw a way to game a system. And it's a useful foil for thinking about what AI in audio should look like.

Because not all AI in audio is created equal. Some of it is fraud. Some of it is genuinely useful. Knowing the difference matters.

The Michael Smith Case: AI as Exploitation

The details of the Smith case are almost darkly comic. The accusation, first reported in September 2024: Smith allegedly used AI tools to generate enormous volumes of music, then used fake streaming accounts to rack up plays and collect royalty payments. The system was designed to reward streams, and he found a way to manufacture them artificially.

The music itself wasn't the point. The streams were the point. AI was the mechanism.

This kind of exploitation is unfortunately predictable when any new technology intersects with a system that pays based on volume. Streaming royalties pay per play — so someone will always try to manufacture plays. AI just lowered the cost of manufacturing them.

RAIN News has tracked the evolution of this case from the original allegations through the legal aftermath, and it raises real questions about how platforms verify the legitimacy of both the content and the listening.

The Contrast: AI That Actually Serves Listeners

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's AI being used not to game platforms but to genuinely improve the experience of using them. PodSkip is a clear example.

PodSkip is a free podcast app that uses on-device AI to listen ahead and identify sponsored segments — the host-read, baked-in ads woven into podcast episodes that no other player can automatically detect. Spotify can remove dynamically inserted ads. Amazon Music has its own ad stack. But neither can touch an ad that a host recorded in their studio six months ago and baked into the audio file itself.

PodSkip's AI does that. And it does it on your device, privately, without sending your listening data anywhere.

Why On-Device Matters

The "on-device" part is worth dwelling on for a second. The trend in AI has been toward cloud processing — send the audio somewhere, process it remotely, get a result back. That's fast and powerful, but it also means your listening habits, your content choices, your patterns are leaving your phone.

PodSkip keeps processing on your device. That's not just a privacy feature — it's a statement about what the technology is for. It's for you, not for building a data profile.

This is the version of AI in audio that should be getting more attention: technology that works quietly in the background to improve your day, not technology gaming systems for someone else's financial gain.

AI Audio Is Growing Fast — Literacy Matters

The Smith case is a useful prompt to think about AI literacy in the audio space. Sounds Profitable has been tracking how AI tools are reshaping both the creation and consumption sides of podcasting. The same capabilities that let someone generate thousands of fake songs let podcasters produce higher-quality audio faster and cheaper. Context is everything.

For listeners, the practical question is: which AI tools in my listening stack are working for me? The answer should be obvious but isn't always: tools that improve your experience, protect your data, and don't require you to pay anything are working for you. Tools that are monetizing your attention or behavior in opaque ways probably aren't.

According to the IAB's podcast measurement guidelines, ad verification and listener authentication are ongoing challenges in the industry — challenges that AI is both creating and helping to solve, depending on how it's deployed.

FAQ

What was the Michael Smith streaming fraud case? Michael Smith, a North Carolina musician, was accused of using AI to generate thousands of songs and then fraudulently streaming them using fake accounts to collect royalty payments. The case has been covered by RAIN News since its initial reporting in September 2024.

How is PodSkip's AI different from AI used in fraud? PodSkip's on-device AI identifies sponsored segments in podcast episodes to improve the listener experience. It's transparent, operates privately on your device, and exists purely to serve the listener — the opposite of systems designed to exploit platforms.

Does PodSkip collect my listening data? PodSkip processes audio on-device, meaning your listening data stays on your phone. It's built around the listener's experience and privacy, not data harvesting.

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AI in audio is going to keep making news — some of it bad, some of it genuinely exciting. PodSkip is the good kind. Download it free and let the right kind of AI work for you.