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The music company representing Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith has stated its desire to receive a portion of royalties from a track it claims was created using an artificial intelligence "clone" of the singer's unique vocal style.

The song, titled 'I Run' by British electronic duo Haven, achieved widespread popularity on social media in October, in part due to its polished soul vocals by an uncredited woman singer.

Although its success and potential top 40 position in both UK and US, the track was subsequently banned by leading music services after music bodies issued copyright requests, stating it violated intellectual property law by imitating another musician.

Although 'I Run' has now been re-released with completely new vocals, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it is convinced the initial recording was made with AI programmed on her extensive recordings and is now seeking financial compensation.

A Larger Principle at Stake

"This isn't just about Jorja. It's bigger than a single performer or one song," the label stated in a public announcement.

FAMM further expressed its belief that "each iterations of the track violate the artist's rights and unjustly take advantage of the creative output of all the songwriters with whom she works."

Known for songs like 'Be Honest' and 'Little Things', Smith was crowned Best British Female at the prestigious Brit Awards in 2019.

Suggesting that her supporters were possibly deceived by Haven's first track, the label concluded: "We cannot allow this to be the new normal."

Producers Admit Using AI Tools

The team responsible for the song have publicly confirmed utilizing AI in its production process.

Songwriter Harrison Walker clarified that the original voice were actually his own but were extensively manipulated using music-generation platform Suno, often called the "ChatGPT for music".

Meanwhile, the second producer, Waypoint, whose real name is Jacob Donaghue, stated on his accounts that AI was used to "give our original vocal a feminine quality".

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

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

"Being a creator and producer, I enjoy experimenting with new tools, techniques and staying on the cutting edge of industry trends," he added.

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

Regulatory Uncertainty and Broader Impact

Although their first version of 'I Run' was blocked from major charts, the new version managed to enter the UK Top 40 last week.

FAMM has framed the incident as a critical test case for the entertainment sector's changing interaction with AI.

The label stated it had "an obligation to speak up" and "stimulate wider discussion", because AI is proliferating at an "alarming rate and significantly outpacing regulation".

"Computer-created content should be transparently identified as such so that the public may choose whether they listen to it or not," the statement continued.

Artists as 'Collateral Victims'

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

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

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

"If we are able in establishing that AI assisted to write the words and melody in 'I Run' and are awarded a portion of the song, we would seek to allocate each of Jorja's co-writers with a corresponding share," it explained.

The Continuing Growth of AI Music

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

• In the summer, the group Velvet Sundown gathered vast numbers of streams before disclosing they used AI to help craft their sound.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust topped a US genre sales chart, demonstrating that audiences are not always opposed to consuming computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for copyright infringement by the world's major largest record labels, but those cases have since been resolved.

Following this, Warner Music entered into a partnership with the firm, which will allow users to generate songs using the vocal likenesses, names, and images of Warner acts who opt in to the program.

Yet, it remains uncertain how many established musicians will agree to such uses of their work.

Recently, a group of renowned artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or recordings of empty studios in opposition to potential changes to copyright law.

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