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The music company representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has stated its desire to claim a share of royalties from a track it claims was produced using an AI "clone" of the performer's distinctive voice.

The track, titled 'I Run' by UK dance act Haven, gained massive popularity on TikTok last October, partly due to its smooth R&B vocals by an unnamed female singer.

Although its momentum and impending top 40 position in both UK and US, the song was later removed by leading streaming platforms after music bodies issued takedown requests, alleging it breached copyright by imitating another artist.

Although 'I Run' has since been reissued with completely new vocals, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it believes the initial version was generated with AI trained on her body of recordings and is now seeking appropriate redress.

A Broader Issue at Stake

"This is not only about one artist. It's bigger than one artist or one song," the label stated in a public announcement.

FAMM further expressed its view that "both iterations of the track infringe on the artist's rights and unfairly benefit from the work of all the writers with whom she collaborates."

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

Suggesting that her fans were possibly deceived by Haven's original release, the label concluded: "We must not permit this to be the new normal."

Producers Acknowledge Employing AI Tools

The team behind the track have publicly confirmed using AI during its production process.

Songwriter Harrison Walker clarified that the initial voice were actually his own but were heavily manipulated using AI music software Suno, sometimes referred to as the "advanced tool for music".

Meanwhile, the other producer, Waypoint, whose real name is Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on his accounts that AI was used to "give our starting vocal a feminine tone".

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

"It is no secret that I used AI-powered vocal editing to convert exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

"As a songwriter and producer, I enjoy using new tools, techniques and remaining on the forefront of what's happening," he added.

"To set the facts clear, the artists behind HAVEN are actual and human, and all we aim to do is make great music for other humans."

Regulatory Uncertainty and Industry Impact

While their original version of 'I Run' was blocked from official charts, the replacement recording managed to break into the UK Top 40 recently.

FAMM has framed the entire episode as a critical precedent for the entertainment sector's evolving interaction with artificial intelligence.

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

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

Artists as 'Collateral Victims'

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

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

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

"Should we are able in establishing that AI helped to write the lyrics and melody in 'I Run' and are granted a share of the song, we would seek to allocate every one of Jorja's co-writers with a pro-rata share," it detailed.

The Ongoing Rise of Computer-Generated Music

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

• In June, the group Velvet Sundown accumulated vast numbers of plays before disclosing they used AI to aid develop their musical style.
• Last month, an AI-generated "performer" known as Breaking Rust topped a US genre digital song sales chart, demonstrating that audiences are not always averse to hearing computer-generated music.
• Suno was previously taken to court for alleged violations by the industry's three biggest record labels, though those legal actions have since been resolved.

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

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

Just last week, a group of renowned artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush released a vinyl album featuring silent songs or recordings of empty studios in opposition to proposed revisions to copyright law.

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