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

The song, titled 'I Run' by UK electronic duo Haven, gained widespread popularity on TikTok last October, in part due to its smooth R&B vocals by an unnamed female singer.

Although its success and impending top 40 position in both UK and US, the song was later removed by leading streaming platforms after industry bodies issued copyright notices, stating it violated intellectual property law by impersonating another musician.

Although 'I Run' has now been re-released with different vocals, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it is convinced the original recording was generated with AI trained on her extensive recordings and is now seeking appropriate compensation.

A Larger Principle in Play

"The situation is not only about one artist. This is larger than a single performer or one song," the label stated in a recent announcement.

FAMM further expressed its belief that "each iterations of the song violate Jorja's legal rights and unfairly take advantage of the creative output 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 prestigious Brit Awards in 2019.

Suggesting that her supporters were potentially deceived by Haven's original track, the label added: "We must not permit this to become the standard practice."

Producers Acknowledge Employing AI Tools

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

Producer Harrison Walker clarified that the initial voice were actually his own but were extensively manipulated using AI music software Suno, sometimes referred to as the "advanced tool for music".

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

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

"This is no mystery that I used AI-powered vocal editing to convert exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

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

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

Regulatory Gray Areas and Broader Implications

While their original release of 'I Run' was blocked from official charts, the replacement version managed to break into the UK Top 40 recently.

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

The label argued it had "a duty to voice concerns" and "encourage public discourse", because AI is proliferating at an "alarming rate and substantially exceeding legal oversight".

"AI-generated material should be transparently labelled as such so that the public may decide whether they listen to it or not," the message continued.

Creators Become 'Collateral Victims'

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

The post warned that artists and creators were turning into "unintended casualties in the race by governments and corporations towards AI dominance".

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

"Should we are able in establishing 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 every one of Jorja's collaborators with a corresponding share," it detailed.

The Continuing Rise of AI Music

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

• In the summer, the band Velvet Sundown gathered vast numbers 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 sales chart, showing that listeners are not always averse to consuming AI-made music.
• Suno was previously sued for copyright infringement by the industry's major biggest record labels, but those legal actions have since been settled.

Subsequently, Warner Music established a collaboration with the firm, which will enable users to generate songs using the vocal likenesses, names, and images of Warner artists who opt in to the program.

Yet, it remains uncertain how many established musicians will consent to such uses of their identity.

Recently, a collective of renowned artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or audio of empty studios in protest to proposed changes to intellectual property regulations.

They argue these changes would make it simpler for AI companies to develop models using copyrighted work without obtaining a permission.