Tag Archives: author_name|Kris Holt

Alleged fraudster got $10 million in royalties using robots to stream AI-made music

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A North Carolina man is facing fraud charges after allegedly uploading hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to streaming services and using bots to play them billions of times. Michael Smith is said to have received over $10 million in royalties since 2017 via the scheme.

Smith, 52, was arrested on Wednesday. An indictment [PDF] that was unsealed the same day accuses him of using the bots to steal royalty payments from platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Smith has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York says this is its first criminal case that concerns the use of bots to artificially inflate music streaming numbers. 

Prosecutors accused Smith of creating thousands of bots to stream the songs. At first, he was said to have uploaded his own music to the streaming services, but realized that his catalog wasn't big enough to produce a large sum of royalties. After other efforts didn't pan out, he's said to have turned to AI-generated music in 2018.

According to the indictment, Smith began working with two unnamed co-conspirators — the CEO of an AI music company and a music promoter — to create hundreds of thousands of songs using AI. In exchange for a cut of revenue, the CEO allegedly provided thousands of tracks per week to Smith, who is said to have randomly generated song titles and artist names for the audio files.

Smith is accused of lying to streaming services by providing phony names and other fake account details while setting up the bots, and by agreeing to rules that ban streaming manipulation. According to the indictment, he deceived streaming services by making it seem the bot accounts were legit when in fact they "were hard coded to stream Smith’s music billions of times." Smith allegedly attempted to cover his tracks by using dummy email addresses and VPNs, while telling his co-conspirators to be “undetectable.”

"Michael Smith fraudulently streamed songs created with artificial intelligence billions of times in order to steal royalties," US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "Through his brazen fraud scheme, Smith stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed."

The case of Smith is in stark contrast to a musician The New York Times profiled earlier this year. Matt Farley has written, recorded and uploaded tens of thousands of songs to streaming services about anything and everything people might search for, from celebrities and marriage proposals to many tunes about poop. Some songs are just a few seconds long, but the practice seems to be entirely above board. He's said to have earned around $200,000 from his music in 2023.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/alleged-fraudster-got-10-million-in-royalties-using-robots-to-stream-ai-made-music-162944343.html?src=rss

UK competition watchdog opens Ticketmaster probe after Oasis ticket debacle

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The UK’s competition watchdog has opened a formal investigation into Ticketmaster after tickets for Oasis' reunion shows went on sale last weekend. The Competition and Markets Authority said it will look into the company’s dynamic pricing practice and whether it broke consumer law.

Dynamic pricing involves a business adjusting prices based on shifting market conditions, such as demand. Airlines are among those that use the model.

Some Oasis fans who tried desperately to get tickets for the band’s first shows in 16 years waited for hours in Ticketmaster’s virtual queues. When they were finally able to buy tickets, some found that they were two or three times more expensive than they may have expected due to dynamic pricing. With Ticketmaster often giving customers mere moments to complete a purchase after tickets are in their cart, fans were faced with having to make a snap decision about paying significantly more than they’d anticipated.

The CMA will look into the pressure of that ticking clock on consumers' purchasing decisions. It will also attempt to determine if Ticketmaster conducted “unfair commercial practices” that are banned under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act 2008. Moreover, the watchdog will investigate whether customers were provided with “clear and timely information to explain that the tickets could be subject to so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ with prices changing depending on demand, and how this would operate, including the price they would pay for any tickets purchased.”

The CMA notes that while dynamic pricing isn’t inherently illegal under UK law, ticket sales platforms have to be transparent with customers, and provide clear and accurate details about how much they need to pay. The watchdog said that the practice could breach consumer protection or competition law in certain cases.

Oasis criticized the use of dynamic pricing for the band's long-awaited reunion gigs. "It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management," the band said in a statement. It claimed to have no "awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used." Other high-profile artists — including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and The Cure — have opted out of using dynamic pricing for recent shows.

Following the scramble for Oasis tickets, the UK government has pledged to look at dynamic pricing as part of a consultation into the secondary-ticket market this fall. In the US, the Justice Department and many state and district attorneys general filed an antitrust suit in a bid to break up Ticketmaster owner Live Nation. They claim it holds a monopoly over the live entertainment industry. Ticketmaster was also the victim of a cyber attack this year in which hackers obtained the personal information of 560 million customers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uk-competition-watchdog-opens-ticketmaster-probe-after-oasis-ticket-debacle-143233958.html?src=rss

US charges Russian state media employees over a social media influence scheme

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The Department of justice (DOJ) has indicted two employees of the Russian state-owned broadcaster RT over an alleged pro-Russia influence scheme on social media platforms. Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva have been accused of being involved in a plan to pay an unnamed Tennessee company almost $10 million to spread nearly 2,000 videos (most of which included disinformation and/or pro-Russia propaganda) in English across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X. The DOJ says the videos had been viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube alone.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference that, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "RT’s editor-in-chief said the company had built an 'entire empire of covert projects' designed to shape public opinion in 'Western audiences.'" As part of that goal, RT and employees (including the two defendants) "implemented a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government."

"To implement this scheme, the defendants directed the company to contract with US-based social media influencers to share this content and their platforms. The subject matter and content of many of the videos published by the company were often consistent with Russia's interest in amplifying US domestic divisions in order to weaken US opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine," Garland said.

The Tennessee company didn't inform the influencers or their millions of followers of its links to the Russian government, Garland added. It instead claimed to be sponsored by a fictitious "private investor," according to the DOJ. 

Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both are at large. However, the charges do not signal the end of the case. Galand pointed out the investigation is ongoing.

The DOJ unsealed the indictment amid a broader push by the government to clamp down on Russian propaganda and disinformation ahead of November's general election. In a separate action, the DOJ seized 32 websites "that the Russian government and the Russian-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country's elections," Garland said.

The campaign, which Russia is said to have called "Doppelganger," included the creation of websites that "were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major US news sites, like The Washington Post or Fox News, but, in fact, they were fake sites," Garland said. "They were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests and influence voters in the United States and in other countries."

Meanwhile, the Treasury and State departments announced parallel actions. The Treasury Department sanctioned ANO Dialog, a Russian nonprofit that's said to help orchestrate the Doppleganger campaign, along with RT editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan and other RT employees.

The State Department sanctioned RT and four other state-funded publishers. It is also offering a $10 million reward for information regarding to foreign interference over an American election.

After this story was originally published, CNN reported that the unnamed company that the Russian operatives were paying to spread disinformation was Tennessee-based Tenet Media, a company known for employing far-right commentators including Tim Pool and Benny Johnson, who have millions of subscribers on YouTube. As of now, there's no official confirmation from the government to verify CNN's report.

Update, September 5 2024, 10:05AM ET: this story has been updated to include CNN's report on Tenet Media being involved in the investigation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/us-charges-russian-state-media-employees-over-a-social-media-influence-scheme-200028302.html?src=rss

Stylish neo-noir detective game Phoenix Springs is delayed until October 7

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Phoenix Springs, a very stylish point-and-click game that caught our attention during the Summer Game Fest edition of Day of the Devs, will be arriving a little later than expected. The neo-noir detective title will hit Steam on October 7 rather than the previously announced date of September 16. Calligram Studio plans to bring Phoenix Springs to GOG and Itch.io later in the year and it's in talks with publishers to release console ports as well.

Calligram says it's pushing back the Steam release date by a few weeks after it "lost a bit of momentum this summer." Phoenix Springs, which will cost $20, is being made by a three-person team that said it needed just a little extra time.

Senior Reporter Jessica Conditt had the chance to try out Phoenix Springs during Summer Game Fest and came away impressed. The hand-drawn art and intriguing story may well be a winning combination, so having to wait a few extra weeks to delve into the mystery isn't the end of the world.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/stylish-neo-noir-detective-game-phoenix-springs-is-delayed-until-october-7-173529355.html?src=rss

X won’t train Grok on EU users’ public posts

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X will permanently avoid training its AI chatbot Grok on the public posts of users in the European Union and European Economic Area following pressure from a regulator in the region. Last month, the company temporarily suspended the practice after Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) opened High Court proceedings against it. X has now made that commitment a permanent one, which prompted the DPC to end its legal action.

The DPC, which is the chief EU regulator for X, raised concerns that X may have been violating data protection rules and users' rights. Since May, X had offered users the option to opt-out of having their public posts being used to train Grok, implying that the company had enabled that setting for public accounts by default. Under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), however, companies are typically required to obtain explicit consent from users before processing their data. X does not have a media relations department that can be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the DPC has urged the European Data Protection Board to weigh in "on some of the core issues that arise in the context of processing for the purpose of developing and training an AI model," including how personal data is processed for such purposes. "The DPC hopes that the resulting opinion will enable proactive, effective and consistent Europe-wide regulation of this area more broadly,” DPC commissioner Dale Sunderland said in a statement. “It will also support the handling of a number of complaints that have been lodged with/transmitted to the DPC” about such practices.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/x-wont-train-grok-on-eu-users-public-posts-155438606.html?src=rss

Concord players keep jumping off the map in a race to claim the Platinum trophy

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Even though Concord evidently didn't sell anywhere close to the number of copies it needed to be sustainable, the team shooter does have some dedicated players. Sony and Firewalk Studios have stopped selling the PS5 and PC game before taking it offline this Friday, two weeks after its launch. And yet, some folks are still striving to unlock Concord's Platinum trophy before the servers are shut down. What's more, many of them are taking a creative approach to earning that honor, which they get after unlocking the rest of a game's trophies.

Outside of a few slightly more difficult objectives such as killing five enemies in a row without dying, Concord's trophies are largely based around grinding. They include eliminating a total of 50 opponents as each character (or Freegunner) and reaching level 10 with each. Earning one trophy is as simple as playing a match with a friend.

Perhaps the most time-consuming trophy to earn is a Silver that requires players to reach a reputation level of 100. After news of the game's shutdown emerged, some players called for Firewalk to offer extra XP (or experience points) to help them earn the Platinum before Concord goes offline. One of them, GoodGameKofi, wrote on X on Tuesday that they were at level 48 and wouldn't have enough time to hit level 100 in order to claim the last remaining trophy based on how much XP players earn per game.

However, as noted by Gene Park of The Washington Post, Concord players have found a way to speed up matches and farm XP faster. They're yeeting themselves off the map over and over again. It seems that they're primarily doing so in Rivalry, a mode in which players only have one life and don't respawn.

That said, the strategy won't get players to level 100 in a hurry. After claiming to hurl themselves off the map constantly for an hour, X user Radec "only went from Level 44 to 45... I am NOT getting this Platinum bro."

After taking down Concord, Firewalk and Sony plan to "explore options, including those that will better reach our players." That suggests that Concord may return at some point, and if so it will probably have a free-to-play model. However, if Concord remains offline for good, the game will have one of the rarest of all Platinum trophies. According to one trophy tracker site, just 14 players have earned the Platinum so far. Those are some valuable bragging rights for those willing to do nothing but jump off the map for dozens of hours.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/concord-players-keep-jumping-off-the-map-in-a-race-to-claim-the-platinum-trophy-143258391.html?src=rss

The Acer Nitro V 16 gaming laptop now comes in an Intel flavor

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IFA is upon us, which means that along with offering us some truly ridiculous new concepts, a whole bunch of manufacturers are giving their gaming laptops iterative upgrades and introducing some fresh variants. Acer is one of the companies doing just that (though in fairness, it has some more exciting announcements elsewhere, such as its first gaming handheld). The company is refreshing the Nitro V 16 system and introducing the Nitro V 14, though which one you opt for will be determined by more than just screen size.

The Nitro V 16 configurations max out with an Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU, 32GB of memory and a 2TB SSD. The previous model bore an AMD processor. On the display side, you can have a 16-inch 180Hz 16:10 WQXGA panel with a resolution of 2,500 x 1,600, if you desire it.

Acer says it has optimized performance with a dual-fan, quad-intake and quad-exhaust thermal system that draws cold air from the the top keyboard and button cover and expels heat through the rear and side vents to prevent throttling. You can activate an MUX (multiplexer) switch to manually toggle the iGPU to boost graphics performance for gaming when needed.

Nitro V 14 laptop
Acer

The 14.5-inch Nitro V 14 model is a new addition to the Acer lineup. It comes with an AMD CPU instead, up to a Ryzen 7 8845HS Processor. If you're willing to go for a high-end configuration, you can trick out the laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, 32GB DDR5 memory and a 2TB SSD. You can have a WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) or WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, 3ms overdrive response time and 100 percent sRGB color gamut support. There's an MUX switch here too, while the pearl white chassis is quite fetching.

Both laptops come with support for NVIDIA's ray-tracing and DLSS 3.5 upscaling tech. As with all new Windows laptops, there's a dedicated button to open Microsoft's Copilot assistant (if anyone's ever pressed that on purpose on their laptop yet, please do let me know). There are some other fairly standard AI-powered features too, such as noise reduction tech that's employed when you use the triple microphone array.

The Nitro V 14 will hit North America in September and it will start at $1,100. The Nitro V 16 will arrive the following month and start at $1,300.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/the-acer-nitro-v-16-gaming-laptop-now-comes-in-an-intel-flavor-130030058.html?src=rss

Elgato’s Stream Deck Neo is 15 percent off right now

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Folks who are looking to upgrade their livestreaming setup or become more productive on their PC or Mac may be interested in picking up an Elgato Stream Deck Neo. The desktop device allows you to set up all manner of commands and shortcuts that you can trigger with the press of a button. The Stream Deck Neo strikes a good middle ground between the Mini (which has just six buttons) and the full-size model.

The Stream Deck Neo typically costs $100. However, it's currently on sale at Amazon for $85.

The Stream Deck MK.2 has long been one of our recommended accessories for folks who stream gameplay on the likes of Twitch or YouTube. But the smaller Neo can do the trick too. The larger model has 15 LCD keys compared with the Neo's eight, but you can set up multiple pages of shortcuts for the Neo and navigate between them with the press of a button.

Setting up commands and shortcuts through the Stream Deck PC and Mac app can be as simple as dragging and dropping actions into place. There are a ton of presets for you to get started with too. The Stream Deck Neo offers integrations with a bunch of apps, such as Zoom, Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Google Workspace, Photoshop, Adobe Creative Apps, Spotify and Music. You can use it to control smart home devices as well, including lights and speakers. 

An info bar along the bottom can persistently display key information, such as the date and time. What's more, you can customize the image that appears on each LCD button to be just about whatever you want for that ultra-personal touch.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/elgatos-stream-deck-neo-is-15-percent-off-right-now-181501365.html?src=rss

Concord is going offline two weeks after its PS5 and PC launch

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Sony's new team shooter Concord is not going to be playable for much longer. Developer Firewalk Studios says it will take the game offline on September 6, just two weeks after its release, to "explore options, including those that will better reach our players." 

You can no longer buy Concord digitally and Sony will refund everyone who bought the $40 game on PlayStation 5, Steam and the Epic Games Store. Those who bought a physical copy can return it to the point of purchase to get their money back. 

"While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended," game director Ryan Ellis wrote on the PlayStation Blog. 

While Sony hasn't disclosed sales figures, all indications suggested that Concord was a flop out of the gate. The game debuted to middling reviews. It never had more than 700 concurrent players on Steam after its official launch, which is an abysmal result for a fairly high-profile game. Some analysts estimate that it sold just 25,000 copies across Steam and PS5 in its first six days — nowhere near enough to make it sustainable as a live-service game. 

It's very uncommon for a major publisher to pull a game offline so soon after its debut. The most recent one that springs to mind is Amazon's Crucible back in 2020.

There are lots of reasons why Concord didn't take off, from its so-so gameplay and lack of captivating characters to heavyweight competition from other free-to-play team shooters including Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone and Sony's own Destiny 2. Firewalk (which Sony bought last year) may well try to retool Concord as a free-to-play game, but this is nothing short of a major failure for Sony as things stand.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/concord-is-going-offline-two-weeks-after-its-ps5-and-pc-launch-163134728.html?src=rss

Amazon’s Kindle is back on sale at its Prime Day price

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While you can do pretty much anything on your phone or tablet, sometimes having a dedicated device is the way to go. Opting for an ereader can help reduce eye strain compared with looking at a smartphone screen for hours on end. The battery will last longer too, and you won't have notifications popping up to distract you. So if you're someone who reads digital books and hasn't picked up an ereader yet (or you're tired of lugging around bulky paperbacks), it's worth considering Amazon's entry-level Kindle.

The Kindle has dropped from $100 to $85. While that's not an all-time-low price, it matches the offer that we saw during Amazon's Prime Day sale in July.

The standard Kindle is our pick for the best budget ereader. With its six-inch, 300dpi E Ink display, it's the lightest and most compact model in Amazon's lineup at the moment.

The Kindle comes with 16GB of storage, which makes it handy for audiobooks. When you buy both an ebook and an audiobook from Amazon, you can swap between the two easily enough on your Kindle. Thanks to the Whispersync feature, you can read for a bit in a park then continue where you left off with the narrated version while you're on your way back home.

You can customize the reading experience by adjusting factors like the margins, font and text size, and even save your preferences as a theme or preset. While page turns are speedy, we felt that the touchscreen gestures didn't always consistently carry out the intended action. It's also worth bearing in mind that unlike other Kindles, this one has no waterproof rating, so you'll want to be careful with it at the beach or pool.

Meanwhile, there's one other thing worth noting here. This model debuted in 2022 and Amazon is expected to host its annual fall hardware event in the coming weeks. The Kindle is due for a refresh so we may see an updated model there. That said, if you're just looking for a relatively inexpensive ereader, this is a solid deal.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazons-kindle-is-back-on-sale-at-its-prime-day-price-145649848.html?src=rss