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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 asserts was created using an artificial intelligence "replica" of the singer's distinctive vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by British electronic duo Haven, achieved massive traction on social media last October, partly due to its smooth R&B vocals by an uncredited woman vocalist.

Despite its success and potential chart entry in both UK and US, the song was subsequently removed by major streaming platforms after music organizations issued copyright notices, stating it breached copyright by impersonating another musician.

Even though 'I Run' has now been re-released with different singing, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it is convinced the original version was generated with AI trained on her extensive work and is now pursuing appropriate redress.

A Larger Issue at Stake

"The situation isn't just about one artist. It's larger than one artist or one song," the label stated in a recent announcement.

FAMM also expressed its view that "each versions of the song infringe on Jorja's legal rights and unfairly benefit from the work of all the songwriters with whom she works."

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

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

Creators Admit Using AI Technology

The team responsible for the song have openly admitted using AI during its creation.

Songwriter Harrison Walker explained that the original vocals were actually his own but were heavily manipulated using AI music platform Suno, sometimes referred to as the "ChatGPT for music".

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

Donaghue and Walker assert that they composed and produced the music themselves and have even shared files of their original computer files.

"This shouldn't be secret that I used AI-assisted vocal editing to transform solely my voice for 'I Run'," Walker elaborated.

"Being a creator and maker, I enjoy using innovative technologies, methods and remaining on the cutting edge of what's happening," he continued.

"In order to set the facts straight, the artists behind HAVEN are real and human, and all we want to do is make enjoyable music for other humans."

Legal Uncertainty and Broader Impact

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

FAMM has framed the entire episode as a significant precedent for the entertainment sector's changing interaction with AI.

The label argued it had "an obligation to voice concerns" and "encourage wider discussion", because AI is proliferating at an "rapid rate and substantially outpacing regulation".

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

Artists as 'Collateral Victims'

Smith shared her label's position on her personal social media profile.

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

It further noted that the label would share any potential royalties with the collaborators behind Smith's catalogue.

"If we are successful in establishing that AI assisted to compose the words and melody in 'I Run' and are granted a portion of the song, we would seek to allocate each of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it detailed.

The Continuing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

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

• In the summer, the group Velvet Sundown gathered millions of streams before disclosing they used AI to help develop their sound.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" called Breaking Rust topped a US genre digital song sales chart, demonstrating that audiences are not necessarily averse to consuming computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for alleged violations by the industry's three largest record labels, but those legal actions have now been settled.

Subsequently, Warner Music entered into a partnership with the company, which will allow users to create songs using the voices, names, and likenesses of Warner artists who agree to the program.

However, it is unclear how many well-known artists will agree to such applications of their work.

Just last week, a collective of prominent artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album containing tracks of silence or audio of empty studios in protest to proposed revisions to copyright law.

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