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The music company representing Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith has stated its desire to claim a portion of royalties from a track it claims was produced using an AI "replica" of the singer's unique vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by British dance act Haven, gained massive traction on TikTok last October, partly due to its smooth R&B singing by an uncredited female singer.

Although its momentum and potential top 40 entry in both UK and US, the song was later banned by leading streaming platforms after industry organizations issued copyright notices, alleging it breached copyright by impersonating another musician.

Although 'I Run' has now been reissued with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it is convinced the original version was made with AI trained on her extensive work and is now seeking appropriate compensation.

A Broader Issue at Stake

"The situation is not only about one artist. It's bigger than one artist or one song," the label wrote in a recent statement.

FAMM also expressed its belief that "both iterations of the song infringe on Jorja's rights and unfairly benefit from the work of all the songwriters with whom she works."

Famous for songs like 'Be Honest' and 'Little Things', Smith was named British Female Solo Artist at the annual Brit Awards in 2019.

Suggesting that her fans were potentially deceived by Haven's original release, the label added: "Our industry cannot allow this to be the standard practice."

Producers Acknowledge Employing AI Technology

The team responsible for the track have publicly admitted utilizing AI during its production process.

Producer Harrison Walker explained that the initial voice were in fact his own but were heavily manipulated using AI music software Suno, sometimes called the "ChatGPT for music".

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

Donaghue and Walker assert that they wrote and created the song themselves and have even shared evidence of their original production sessions.

"It is no mystery that I used AI-powered vocal processing to transform exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker elaborated.

"Being a songwriter and producer, I like using new tools, techniques and staying on the forefront of industry trends," he added.

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

Legal Gray Areas and Broader Implications

Although their first release of 'I Run' was suspended from major rankings, the replacement version did break into the UK Top 40 last week.

FAMM has framed the incident as a significant test case for the entertainment sector's evolving relationship with artificial intelligence.

The label stated it had "an obligation to speak up" and "stimulate public discourse", because AI is proliferating at an "rapid rate and substantially exceeding legal oversight".

"AI-generated material should be transparently labelled as such so that the audience may decide whether they consume it or not," the statement added.

Artists as 'Unintended Damage'

Smith endorsed her label's position on her own Instagram page.

The text cautioned that artists and songwriters were turning into "unintended casualties in the race by governments and corporations towards AI dominance".

It further noted that the label would share any awarded songwriting credits with the collaborators behind Smith's music.

"Should we are able in establishing that AI assisted to write the words and tune in 'I Run' and are granted a share of the song, we would seek to allocate each of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it explained.

The Ongoing Growth of AI Music

The emergence of AI-generated music has been a topic of both interest and consternation for the entertainment world.

• In June, the band Velvet Sundown gathered millions of plays before revealing they used AI to aid develop their musical style.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust led a US country digital song sales chart, demonstrating that audiences are not always averse to hearing computer-generated music.
• Suno was previously taken to court for copyright infringement by the industry's three largest record labels, but those legal actions have now been resolved.

Subsequently, Warner Music entered into a collaboration with the firm, which will allow users to generate songs using the voices, names, and images of Warner artists who opt in to the program.

However, it remains unclear how many established artists will agree to such uses of their identity.

Just last week, a group of prominent artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album containing silent songs or recordings of empty studios in opposition to proposed changes to intellectual property regulations.

They contend these changes would make it simpler for AI companies to train models using copyrighted work without obtaining a permission.