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The music company representing Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith has declared its intention to claim a portion of royalties from a track it asserts was created using an AI "clone" of the singer's unique voice.

The track, titled 'I Run' by UK electronic duo Haven, achieved massive traction on social media in October, partly due to its smooth R&B singing by an uncredited female singer.

Although its success and potential chart position in the UK and US, the track was later banned by major streaming platforms after industry organizations sent takedown requests, alleging it breached intellectual property law by impersonating another musician.

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

A Larger Issue in Play

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

FAMM also stated its belief that "each versions of the song violate the artist's rights and unfairly benefit from the work of all the writers with whom she works."

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

Suggesting that her supporters were potentially misled by Haven's original track, the label added: "Our industry must not permit this to be the standard practice."

Producers Acknowledge Employing AI Technology

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

Songwriter Harrison Walker explained that the original vocals were actually his own but were heavily altered using music-generation platform Suno, sometimes called the "advanced tool for music".

In addition, the second 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 created the music themselves and have even provided evidence of their original computer files.

"This shouldn't be mystery that I used AI-powered vocal editing to convert exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker elaborated.

"As a songwriter and producer, I enjoy experimenting with new tools, methods and staying on the cutting edge of what's happening," he added.

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

Legal Gray Areas and Broader Implications

Although their original version of 'I Run' was suspended from major rankings, the replacement version did enter the UK Top 40 last week.

FAMM has framed the entire episode as a critical precedent for the entertainment sector's changing interaction with AI.

The label stated it had "an obligation to voice concerns" and "encourage wider discussion", because AI is proliferating at an "rapid rate and substantially outpacing legal oversight".

"Computer-created material should be clearly identified as such so that the audience may choose whether they consume it or not," the message continued.

Creators Become 'Collateral Damage'

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

The text cautioned that musicians and songwriters were turning into "collateral damage in the race by policymakers and tech firms towards AI supremacy".

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

"Should we are successful in proving that AI assisted to compose the words and tune in 'I Run' and are awarded a share of the song, we would seek to allocate every one of Jorja's co-writers with a pro-rata share," it explained.

The Ongoing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

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

• In the summer, the band Velvet Sundown accumulated millions of streams before revealing they used AI to aid develop their musical style.
• Recently, an AI-generated "performer" known as Breaking Rust topped a US genre sales chart, showing that listeners are not necessarily opposed to consuming AI-made music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for alleged violations by the world's three largest record labels, though those cases have since been settled.

Subsequently, Warner Music entered into a collaboration with the firm, which will allow users to create songs using the vocal likenesses, names, and likenesses of Warner acts who opt in to the program.

However, it is uncertain how a large number of established artists will agree to such uses of their work.

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

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