Labels sue AI song generators for copyright violations

In a landmark move, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has initiated legal proceedings against two prominent AI music generators for alleged copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of major record labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group Recordings, and Warner Records, targets the tech platforms Suno and Udio, accusing them of infringing upon copyrighted recordings "at an almost unimaginable scale."

The RIAA's case, filed on Monday, seeks an injunction to prevent these companies from using copyrighted songs to train their software. Additionally, the labels are pursuing damages of up to $150,000 (£118,200) per infringed work, reflecting the severe implications of the alleged violations.

Suno and Udio, despite being start-ups, have quickly risen to prominence in the realm of AI generative music. These platforms can produce entire songs based on minimal input, such as a single word. Udio, for instance, gained notoriety for creating the Metro Boomin-styled Drake diss track “BBL Drizzy”.

Mitch Glazier, RIAA’s chairman and CEO, emphasized the industry's collaboration with responsible AI developers while condemning unlicensed services like Suno and Udio. In a statement to The Guardian, he remarked, "Unlicensed services that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all."

The legal complaint elaborates on the technical aspects, accusing these AI platforms of copying vast amounts of data to train their software. The process, according to the lawyers representing the major labels, involves "copying decades worth of the world’s most popular sound recordings and then ingesting those copies to generate outputs that imitate the qualities of genuine human sound recordings."

Mikey Shulman, CEO of Suno, defended his company’s practices in a statement to Billboard, asserting that their technology is transformative and designed to generate entirely new outputs. "Suno’s mission is to make it possible for everyone to make music," Shulman explained. "Our technology is designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorize and regurgitate pre-existing content. That is why we don’t allow user prompts that reference specific artists."

Shulman further expressed frustration at the legal actions taken by the record labels, noting that Suno had attempted to engage in discussions to explain their technology. "We would have been happy to explain this to the corporate record labels that filed this lawsuit (and in fact, we tried to do so), but instead of entertaining a good faith discussion, they’ve reverted to their old lawyer-led playbook. Suno is built for new music, new uses, and new musicians. We prize originality."

This lawsuit is part of a broader trend in the music industry grappling with the implications of AI technology. Recently, high-profile cases have emerged, such as the legal challenges against AI-generated deepfake songs and the controversies surrounding AI replicas of famous artists. These cases highlight the ongoing struggle to balance technological innovation with the protection of intellectual property rights and artistic integrity.