Recently, record labels Universal Music, ABKCO, and Concord Publishing have filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Anthropic. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Tennessee, United States, accuses Anthropic of improperly using a substantial number of copyrighted song lyrics to train its chatbot, Claude.
The lawsuit alleges that Anthropic violated the record labels’ rights by using lyrics from at least 500 songs. These songs range from classics like “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys and “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones to contemporary hits like “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars and “Halo” by Beyonce.
Matt Oppenheim, the attorney representing the music companies, declined to comment on the litigation. However, he stated that the lawsuit is well-informed by copyright law. This law prohibits entities from reproducing, distributing, and displaying copyrighted works of others to build their own business unless they secure permission from rights holders.
This lawsuit is not an isolated incident. Many copyright holders, including authors and visual artists, have sued technology companies such as Meta and OpenAI over the use of their works to train generative AI systems.
The record companies’ lawsuit appears to be the first case related to song lyrics and the first against Anthropic. The AI company has received financial backing from tech giants Google and Amazon, as well as former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. Representatives for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
As AI continues to advance and become a part of various aspects of our lives, it’s evident that dealing with the complicated world of ownership rights for ideas and creations will be a significant challenge for AI companies in the future.
Image Credit: Anthropic
