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The music company representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has stated its desire to claim a portion of royalties from a song it asserts was produced using an AI "replica" of the singer's unique voice.

The track, titled 'I Run' by British dance act Haven, achieved massive popularity on social media last October, partly due to its polished soul vocals by an uncredited female singer.

Although its success and potential chart position in both UK and US, the song was subsequently banned by major music services after music bodies issued takedown requests, stating it breached copyright by imitating another musician.

Even though 'I Run' has now been re-released with different vocals, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it believes the initial recording was made with AI trained on her body of work and is now pursuing appropriate compensation.

A Larger Principle at Stake

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

FAMM further stated its view that "both versions of the song infringe on the artist's legal rights and unfairly benefit from the work of all the writers with whom she works."

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

Suggesting that her fans were potentially misled by Haven's original track, the label concluded: "Our industry must not allow this to be the new normal."

Creators Acknowledge Using AI Technology

The team behind the track have publicly confirmed utilizing AI in its creation.

Songwriter Harrison Walker clarified that the initial vocals were in fact his own but were extensively altered using music-generation platform Suno, often called the "advanced tool for music".

Meanwhile, the second producer, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, stated on social media that AI was used to "give our starting vocal a female tone".

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

"This is no secret that I used AI-assisted vocal processing to convert exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

"As a songwriter and maker, I like using new tools, methods and remaining on the cutting edge of industry trends," he added.

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

Legal Uncertainty and Industry Impact

Although their first version of 'I Run' was suspended from official rankings, the replacement recording did enter the UK Top 40 recently.

FAMM has positioned the incident as a significant test case for the music industry's changing interaction with artificial intelligence.

The label stated it had "a duty to speak up" and "encourage wider discussion", because AI is proliferating at an "alarming rate and significantly exceeding regulation".

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

Artists as 'Unintended Damage'

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

The post warned that musicians and creators were turning into "collateral damage in the race by governments and corporations towards AI dominance".

It also stated that the label would distribute any awarded royalties with the collaborators behind Smith's music.

"If we are successful in proving that AI helped to write the words and melody in 'I Run' and are awarded a share of the song, we would aim to assign every one of Jorja's co-writers with a corresponding share," it detailed.

The Continuing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

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

• In the summer, the group Velvet Sundown accumulated millions of plays before disclosing they used AI to aid develop their sound.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust led a US genre digital song sales chart, showing that listeners are not always opposed to hearing computer-generated music.
• Suno was previously taken to court for alleged violations by the world's three largest record labels, though those cases have now been resolved.

Subsequently, Warner Music entered into a partnership with the firm, which will enable users to create songs using the vocal likenesses, names, and likenesses of Warner artists who opt in to the program.

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

Just last week, a group of renowned artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush released a vinyl album containing tracks of silence or audio of empty studios in protest to proposed revisions to intellectual property regulations.

They contend these changes would make it easier for AI companies to develop systems using copyrighted work without securing a license.