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The music company representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has stated its intention to receive a share of royalties from a track it asserts was produced using an artificial intelligence "clone" of the singer's distinctive vocal style.

The song, titled 'I Run' by UK dance act Haven, achieved widespread popularity on social media last October, partly due to its smooth R&B vocals by an unnamed woman singer.

Although its success and impending chart entry in the UK and US, the track was subsequently banned by leading streaming platforms after industry organizations issued takedown requests, stating it violated intellectual property law by impersonating another artist.

Even though 'I Run' has since been re-released with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it believes the initial recording was made with AI trained on her extensive recordings and is now pursuing financial redress.

A Broader Principle in Play

"This is not only about one artist. It's larger than one artist or a single track," the label wrote in a public statement.

FAMM further expressed its belief that "both iterations of the song violate the artist's legal rights and unfairly take advantage of the creative output of all the songwriters with whom she works."

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

Implying that her supporters were possibly misled by Haven's first track, the label concluded: "Our industry cannot permit this to become the new normal."

Creators Admit Employing AI Tools

The duo responsible for the track have publicly admitted utilizing AI during its production process.

Producer Harrison Walker explained that the original voice were in fact his own but were heavily altered using music-generation software Suno, often referred to as the "ChatGPT for music".

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

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they composed and created the music themselves and have even provided evidence of their original production sessions.

"It shouldn't be mystery that I used AI-assisted vocal processing to transform solely my voice for 'I Run'," Walker elaborated.

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

"To set the facts straight, the people behind HAVEN are real and human, and all we want to do is make enjoyable music for fellow humans."

Regulatory Uncertainty and Industry Implications

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

FAMM has framed the entire episode as a critical test case for the music industry's evolving interaction with AI.

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

"Computer-created material should be clearly labelled as such so that the public may decide whether they listen to it or not," the message added.

Artists as 'Collateral Damage'

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

The text cautioned that musicians and creators were becoming "unintended casualties in the race by governments and tech firms towards AI dominance".

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

"Should we are able in proving that AI assisted to write the lyrics and melody in 'I Run' and are awarded a portion of the song, we would aim to assign each of Jorja's collaborators with a corresponding share," it explained.

The Continuing Rise of Computer-Generated Music

The emergence of algorithmically created music has been a topic of both interest and anxiety for the entertainment world.

• In the summer, the band Velvet Sundown gathered vast numbers of streams before revealing they used AI to aid craft their musical style.
• Last month, an AI-generated "artist" called Breaking Rust topped a US country sales chart, demonstrating that listeners are not always averse to consuming AI-made music.
• Suno was previously taken to court for alleged violations by the world's three largest record labels, but those cases have now been settled.

Subsequently, Warner Music entered into a collaboration with the company, which will enable users to create songs using the voices, names, and images of Warner acts who opt in to the service.

Yet, it remains unclear how a large number of well-known musicians will agree to such applications of their identity.

Recently, a collective of prominent artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album containing silent songs or recordings of empty studios in opposition to potential changes to copyright law.

They contend these changes would make it simpler for AI companies to train systems using copyrighted work without obtaining a license.