A new tech world

Dear Readers, I am old enough to remember switchboard calls on rotary dial phones. Televisions of my youth were “rabbit” ears and black-and-white, grainy broadcasts.

I mention this because there is a direct correlation between technology and legal parameters.  Now, we are entering an age where “Blade Runner” is no longer necessarily a fantastic dream of a dystopian future.

War today is conducted by buttons.  Drones are not just gaming equipment or flying surveillance invasions of privacy; they are also war-making devices, cheaper and more maneuverable than multi-million-dollar military ballistic missiles.

We are in an age of Artificial Intelligence.  Jobs are going to be replaced by AI.  “Skynet,” the idea of an intelligent, ubiquitous electronic specter turning on its human creator, is a plausible fear and not a fevered conspiracy.  World War III may result from reason-driven human blundering or from software-initiated bombing directives.

We can no longer trust what our eyes see.  Movies are being made with CGI-generated creatures and backgrounds.  In the 1950s, Gene Kelly merged “Jerry” the mouse with real life in “Anchors Away” and Toulouse Lautrec with ground-breaking dance routines in “An American in Paris.”  We have a life-action “Gollum,” computer-generated from an actor’s animatronic movements.

AI-generated people are a step further in removing humans from the movie-making process.  In the Mandalorian Star Wars Disney+ series, episodes featured a Luke Skywalker right after the rebellion’s overthrow of the Republic.  An actor “played” this version of Luke, as Mark Hamill was far too old.  The actor’s appearance was enhanced by AI to appear as “Mark Hamill.”  

The Screen Actors’ Guild has struck (in part) over the use of AI as a copycat of an actual actor.  Using someone’s image should be compensated.  Of even greater concern is that artificial people are being created as actors or actresses from “whole cloth.”  Meaning a human being is not the model of this “person.”

Again, going back to my youth, “Looney Tunes” were populated by cartoon characters clearly modeled on real actors in image and affect.  In particular, we had cartoons clearly represented as Clark Gable or Cary Grant.  We laughed at the implausible antics.

Mike Smith, of Cornelius, North Carolina, is the test case for a new legal reality.  In 2024, he was indicted by the Federal Government for using AI to generate music for streaming without first obtaining the permission of the original creators of the songs and performers, and for siphoning royalty fees paid by streaming platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music.

On March 16, 2026, Mr. Smith pled guilty to but one count (each transmission could have been a separate count) of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the Southern District Court of New York.  This count is punishable up to five (5) years in prison; he has yet to be sentenced.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s press release, “Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times.  Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real.  Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders.”  The U.S. Attorney’s Office accounted for over $8 million in misappropriated fees, which were forfeited as a condition of the guilty plea.

This is the first prosecution of its kind in the United States; it will not be the last.  France has a streaming service called “Deezer.”  It reports that daily, 60,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to its platform, suggesting that 85% of the tracks uploaded are fraudulent.  

This is a problem for all of us.  Our state and federal legislators are slow to react; they are a tangled partisan mess.  Wrestling with AI and developing punitive laws without stifling development is tricky and complicated.  You almost have to become a tech expert.  The same thing is true for Crypto.

Mr. Smith is one man sitting in a small town (population 31,412 as of 2020) committing worldwide crimes that net millions of dollars.  He was prosecuted for a crime ill-fit for the breadth of the scheme.  We need new laws addressing technologies like AI, rather than adapting old laws to new threats.  We need this now, not later.

Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the former Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami.  Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000.  E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.com.