The Guardian: US man pleads guilty to defrauding music streamers out of millions using AI

Michael Smith, 52, charged after flooding platforms with thousands of AI songs and boosting them with bots

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/21/man-pleads-guilty-music-streaming-fraud-ai

#AI #music #AIpocalypse #crime

First time I've seen AI referred to as a colleague.

#aicolleague #chatbot #aipocalypse

Today, I'll be working all by myself on a "critical, top priority" programming task which is kind of essential to keep the company I'm working for alive.

Where are my colleagues, you may ask.

Well, the company refused to renew most of the willing co-worker's contracts and everybody who is still left is attending a two day long "AI workshop" to "transform [company name] into an AI-first company".

I think the only way to escape this hell is to find a therapist who is willing to attest that my brain is no longer able to handle the madness in the IT industry.

And this needs to happen before the corrupt capitalists running this country finish with their holy quest to dismantle public healthcare.

#AIpocalypse #Germany #Corporatism #Capitalism

Who would have thought that the #AIpocalypse would actually play out only slightly different to what has been depicted in countless dystopian #Sciencefiction works over the years.

Instead of working with a human being doing their best by reviewing their work and teaching them new tricks so they can improve and reach "senior" level in their field, I am now expected to supervise AI agents.

The AI agents tend to produce code which looks "senior" level on the surface but often disintegrates into "below junior" level under scrutiny which makes it harder to review.

It might even do the things it is supposed to do, which makes it even more dangerous as developers without a senior level of expertise may deem the results "good" without a second thought.

So basically, I am working for the AI now which was supposed to work for me. I'm supposed to watch after it, hold it's hand or straight up clean up after it myself.

And who exactly is supposed to do that in the future when all the seniors retired?

Imagine the robot apocalypse really happens BECAUSE the training data contained the Terminator movies.

#aipocalypse