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The music company representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has stated its intention to receive a share of royalties from a song it claims was produced using an AI "clone" of the performer's unique vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by UK electronic duo Haven, achieved widespread popularity on social media last October, in part due to its smooth R&B vocals by an unnamed woman vocalist.

Although its momentum and potential chart entry in the UK and US, the track was subsequently removed by major music services after music bodies issued takedown notices, stating it breached intellectual property law by imitating another musician.

Even though 'I Run' has now been reissued with different singing, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it believes the initial recording was made with AI trained on her extensive work and is now pursuing financial redress.

A Larger Principle in Play

"The situation is not only about one artist. It's larger than a single performer or a single track," the label stated in a recent announcement.

FAMM further stated its belief that "both iterations of the track violate Jorja's rights and unjustly benefit from the creative output of all the songwriters with whom she collaborates."

Famous for hits like 'Be Honest' and 'Little Things', Smith was named Best British Female at the prestigious Brit Awards in 2019.

Suggesting that her fans were possibly misled by Haven's original track, the label concluded: "Our industry must not permit this to become the standard practice."

Producers Admit Employing AI Tools

The team responsible for the song have publicly confirmed utilizing AI in its creation.

Producer Harrison Walker explained that the original vocals were actually his own but were extensively manipulated using AI music software Suno, often referred to as the "ChatGPT for music".

In addition, the second member, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, stated on his accounts that AI was used to "apply our starting vocal a female quality".

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they composed and produced the music themselves and have even shared files of their source production sessions.

"It shouldn't be secret that I used AI-assisted vocal editing to convert solely my voice for 'I Run'," Walker elaborated.

"As a creator and producer, I like experimenting with innovative technologies, methods and remaining on the forefront of what's happening," he added.

"In order to set the facts straight, the artists behind HAVEN are real and people, and all we want to do is make great music for fellow humans."

Legal Uncertainty and Industry Impact

While their original release of 'I Run' was blocked from official charts, the new recording did break into the UK Top 40 recently.

FAMM has framed the entire episode as a significant test case for the entertainment sector's evolving interaction with artificial intelligence.

The label argued it had "a duty to voice concerns" and "stimulate wider discussion", because AI is advancing at an "rapid rate and substantially outpacing legal oversight".

"AI-generated material should be transparently labelled as such so that the public may choose whether they consume it or not," the message continued.

Creators Become 'Unintended Damage'

Smith shared her label's statement on her own social media page.

The text cautioned that musicians and songwriters were turning into "collateral damage in the race by governments and tech firms towards AI dominance".

It also noted that the label would distribute any awarded royalties with the collaborators behind Smith's music.

"Should we are successful in proving that AI assisted to write the lyrics and melody in 'I Run' and are awarded a share of the song, we would aim to allocate each of Jorja's co-writers with a pro-rata share," it detailed.

The Continuing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

The emergence of AI-generated music has been a source of both interest and anxiety for the music industry.

• In June, the group Velvet Sundown gathered vast numbers of streams before revealing they used AI to help craft their musical style.
• Last month, an AI-generated "performer" known as Breaking Rust led a US genre digital song sales chart, demonstrating that listeners are not necessarily opposed to consuming AI-made music.
• Suno was previously taken to court for copyright infringement by the industry's major largest record labels, but those legal actions have now been settled.

Subsequently, Warner Music established a partnership with the firm, which will enable users to create songs using the vocal likenesses, names, and images of Warner artists who opt in to the service.

However, it is unclear how many established artists will consent to such uses of their work.

Recently, a group of renowned artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or recordings of quiet studios in opposition to proposed revisions to copyright law.

They argue these amendments would make it simpler for AI companies to train systems using protected work without obtaining a permission.