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The music company representing Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith has stated its desire to claim a share of royalties from a track it asserts was created using an artificial intelligence "clone" of the performer's distinctive voice.

The song, titled 'I Run' by UK dance act Haven, gained massive traction on TikTok last October, in part due to its polished R&B vocals by an uncredited woman singer.

Although its momentum and impending chart position in both UK and US, the track was subsequently removed by major streaming platforms after industry bodies sent copyright requests, stating it breached copyright by impersonating another artist.

Even though 'I Run' has since been re-released with different vocals, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it is convinced the original version was made with AI trained on her body of recordings and is now seeking financial compensation.

A Broader Issue in Play

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

FAMM also stated its view that "both iterations of the song infringe on the artist's rights and unfairly benefit from the creative output 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 annual Brit Awards in 2019.

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

Producers Admit Using AI Technology

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

Songwriter Harrison Walker explained that the original voice were actually his own but were extensively altered using AI music platform Suno, often referred to as the "ChatGPT for music".

Meanwhile, the other producer, Waypoint, whose real name is Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on social media that AI was used to "give our original vocal a female quality".

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they wrote and produced the music themselves and have even shared files of their original production sessions.

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

"Being a songwriter and producer, I enjoy experimenting with innovative technologies, methods and remaining on the cutting edge of what's happening," he continued.

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

Regulatory Uncertainty and Broader Implications

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

FAMM has positioned the incident as a critical precedent for the music industry's changing relationship with AI.

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

"AI-generated content should be clearly labelled as such so that the audience may decide whether they consume it or not," the message added.

Artists as 'Collateral Damage'

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

The text warned that musicians and songwriters were turning into "unintended casualties in the competition by governments and tech firms towards AI supremacy".

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

"If we are able in proving that AI helped to compose the words and tune in 'I Run' and are granted a portion of the song, we would aim to allocate every one of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it detailed.

The Ongoing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

The emergence of algorithmically created music has been a source of both fascination and consternation for the entertainment world.

• In the summer, the band Velvet Sundown gathered vast numbers of streams before disclosing they used AI to aid craft their musical style.
• Last month, an AI-generated "artist" called Breaking Rust topped a US genre sales chart, demonstrating that audiences are not necessarily opposed to consuming AI-made music.
• Suno was previously taken to court for copyright infringement by the world's major biggest record labels, though those cases have now been resolved.

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

Yet, it remains uncertain how many well-known artists will agree to such applications of their work.

Just last week, a group of prominent musicians including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or audio of empty studios in opposition to proposed revisions to intellectual property regulations.

They argue these amendments would make it simpler for AI companies to train models using protected work without securing a license.