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The music company representing Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith has declared its intention to claim a share of earnings from a song it claims was created using an AI "clone" of the singer's distinctive vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by UK dance act Haven, gained widespread traction on TikTok last October, partly due to its polished R&B vocals by an uncredited woman vocalist.

Although its success and impending chart entry in both UK and US, the track was later banned by leading music services after music bodies issued copyright requests, alleging it breached intellectual property law by impersonating another artist.

Although 'I Run' has now been re-released with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it is convinced the original recording was made with AI trained on her extensive recordings and is now seeking financial redress.

A Broader Issue at Stake

"This isn't just about one artist. This is larger than a single performer or a single track," the label wrote in a recent statement.

FAMM further expressed its view that "both iterations of the track violate Jorja's legal rights and unfairly benefit from the creative output of all the writers with whom she collaborates."

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

Suggesting that her supporters were possibly deceived by Haven's original track, the label concluded: "Our industry cannot allow this to be the standard practice."

Producers Admit Using AI Tools

The team behind the track have openly confirmed using AI in its creation.

Producer Harrison Walker clarified that the original voice were in fact his own but were extensively altered using AI music platform Suno, often called the "ChatGPT for music".

In addition, the second producer, Waypoint, whose real name is Jacob Donaghue, stated on social media that AI was used to "apply our starting vocal a female tone".

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they wrote and created the song themselves and have even shared evidence of their source production sessions.

"This shouldn't be 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, techniques and staying on the forefront of what's happening," he added.

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

Regulatory Gray Areas and Industry Impact

While their first release of 'I Run' was blocked from major rankings, the replacement recording did enter the UK Top 40 last week.

FAMM has framed the incident as a critical precedent for the music industry's evolving relationship with artificial intelligence.

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

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

Creators Become 'Collateral Victims'

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

The post cautioned that artists and creators were becoming "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 writers behind Smith's music.

"If we are able in proving that AI assisted to compose the lyrics and tune in 'I Run' and are awarded a portion of the song, we would seek to assign each of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it detailed.

The Ongoing Rise of AI Music

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

• In the summer, the band Velvet Sundown gathered millions of streams before revealing they used AI to aid develop their musical style.
• Last month, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust topped a US genre digital song sales chart, demonstrating that listeners are not always averse to consuming AI-made music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for alleged violations by the industry's major biggest record labels, but those cases have since been resolved.

Subsequently, 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 artists who opt in to the service.

However, it remains uncertain how a large number of established musicians will consent to such applications of their work.

Recently, a group of prominent musicians 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 protest to potential revisions to intellectual property regulations.

They contend these amendments would make it simpler for AI companies to develop systems using copyrighted work without obtaining a permission.