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The record label representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has declared its desire to claim a share of earnings from a song it claims was created using an artificial intelligence "clone" of the performer's unique voice.

The track, titled 'I Run' by UK dance act Haven, gained widespread popularity on social media in October, partly due to its polished R&B singing by an unnamed female singer.

Although its success and impending chart entry in the UK and US, the song was later removed by major music services after industry organizations sent copyright requests, stating it breached copyright by imitating another artist.

Even though 'I Run' has since been reissued with different singing, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it is convinced the initial recording was made with AI programmed on her extensive work and is now pursuing appropriate redress.

A Broader Principle at Stake

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

FAMM further expressed its view that "each iterations of the track violate the artist's rights and unfairly take advantage of the work of all the writers with whom she collaborates."

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

Suggesting that her fans were possibly deceived by Haven's first release, the label added: "Our industry must not permit this to be the standard practice."

Creators Admit Using AI Tools

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

Producer Harrison Walker clarified that the original vocals were in fact his own but were extensively manipulated using music-generation platform Suno, sometimes referred to as the "ChatGPT for music".

Meanwhile, the other member, Waypoint, whose real name is Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on social media that AI was used to "give our starting vocal a feminine tone".

Donaghue and Walker assert that they composed and produced the music themselves and have even provided evidence of their source computer files.

"It is no mystery that I used AI-powered vocal processing to convert solely my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

"As a creator and maker, I like experimenting with innovative technologies, methods and remaining on the forefront of what's happening," he continued.

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

Regulatory Gray Areas and Industry Implications

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

FAMM has positioned the incident as a critical test case for the entertainment sector's evolving interaction with artificial intelligence.

The label argued it had "a duty to speak up" and "encourage public discourse", because AI is advancing at an "rapid rate and significantly outpacing regulation".

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

Artists as 'Unintended Damage'

Smith endorsed her label's statement on her personal Instagram page.

The post warned that artists and songwriters were turning into "unintended casualties in the competition by governments and corporations towards AI supremacy".

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

"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 aim to assign every one of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it explained.

The Continuing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

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

• In June, the band Velvet Sundown gathered vast numbers of plays before revealing they used AI to help develop their sound.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust topped a US genre sales chart, demonstrating that listeners are not necessarily averse to hearing 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 artists who opt in to the program.

Yet, it is uncertain how many well-known musicians will consent to such uses of their work.

Recently, a collective of renowned artists 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 proposed revisions to intellectual property regulations.

They contend these changes would make it simpler for AI companies to train models using protected work without securing a permission.