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The music company representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has declared its desire to claim a portion of earnings from a song it claims was produced using an artificial intelligence "replica" of the performer's unique vocal style.

The song, titled 'I Run' by UK dance act Haven, achieved widespread traction on social media last October, in part due to its smooth R&B vocals by an uncredited woman vocalist.

Despite its momentum and impending chart entry in both UK and US, the track was subsequently removed by leading music services after music organizations sent copyright notices, alleging it violated intellectual property law by impersonating another artist.

Even though 'I Run' has now been reissued with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it is convinced the original recording was generated with AI trained on her body of recordings and is now seeking financial redress.

A Larger Issue at Stake

"This is not only about one artist. This is larger than one artist or a single track," the label wrote in a public statement.

FAMM further stated its belief that "each iterations of the song violate the artist's legal rights and unfairly benefit from the creative output of all the songwriters with whom she collaborates."

Known for hits like 'Be Honest' and 'Little Things', Smith was crowned British Female Solo Artist at the annual Brit Awards in 2019.

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

Producers Admit Employing AI Technology

The duo responsible for the song have openly admitted utilizing AI during its creation.

Songwriter Harrison Walker explained that the original voice were in fact his own but were extensively manipulated using music-generation platform Suno, sometimes referred to as the "advanced tool for music".

In addition, the other member, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, stated on social media that AI was used to "give our original vocal a female quality".

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they composed and created the music themselves and have even provided evidence of their source computer files.

"This shouldn't be secret that I used AI-powered vocal processing to transform exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

"As a songwriter and producer, I like using innovative technologies, methods and remaining on the forefront of industry trends," he added.

"In order to set the record clear, the people behind HAVEN are actual and human, and all we want to do is make great music for other humans."

Legal Uncertainty and Broader Implications

Although their first release of 'I Run' was blocked from official rankings, the new recording managed to break into the UK Top 40 last week.

FAMM has framed the incident as a significant precedent for the entertainment sector's changing interaction with artificial intelligence.

The label stated it had "an obligation to speak up" and "encourage public discourse", because AI is advancing at an "alarming rate and substantially outpacing legal oversight".

"Computer-created material should be transparently identified as such so that the audience may choose whether they consume it or not," the statement added.

Creators Become 'Collateral Damage'

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

The post warned that musicians and creators were becoming "unintended casualties in the race by policymakers and corporations towards AI dominance".

It also stated that the label would share any awarded songwriting credits with the collaborators behind Smith's catalogue.

"Should we are successful in proving that AI assisted to compose the words and melody in 'I Run' and are granted a share of the song, we would seek to assign each of Jorja's co-writers with a pro-rata share," it explained.

The Ongoing Growth of AI Music

The proliferation of AI-generated music has been a topic of both fascination and anxiety for the entertainment world.

• In June, the band Velvet Sundown accumulated vast numbers of streams before disclosing they used AI to aid develop their musical style.
• Recently, an AI-generated "performer" known as Breaking Rust topped a US genre digital song sales chart, showing that audiences are not always opposed to hearing computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for copyright infringement by the world's major biggest record labels, though those legal actions have since been settled.

Subsequently, Warner Music established a collaboration with the company, which will allow users to create songs using the vocal likenesses, names, and images of Warner acts who opt in to the service.

However, it is unclear how a large number of established musicians will consent to such applications of their identity.

Recently, a collective of renowned musicians including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush released a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or audio of quiet studios in protest to proposed revisions to intellectual property regulations.

They argue these amendments would make it simpler for AI companies to develop systems using copyrighted work without securing a permission.