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The music company representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has stated its intention to receive a portion of royalties from a track it asserts was created using an artificial intelligence "clone" of the performer's distinctive voice.

The song, titled 'I Run' by UK dance act Haven, achieved widespread traction on social media in October, in part due to its smooth soul vocals by an uncredited female singer.

Although its momentum and impending chart position in both UK and US, the song was subsequently removed by major music services after music bodies issued takedown requests, stating it breached copyright by imitating another musician.

Even though 'I Run' has since been reissued with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it believes the initial version was generated with AI programmed on her body of work and is now pursuing financial redress.

A Broader Issue at Stake

"This is not only about Jorja. This is larger than one artist or one song," the label stated in a recent statement.

FAMM further expressed its belief that "each versions of the track infringe on Jorja's rights and unjustly 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 British Female Solo Artist at the annual Brit Awards in 2019.

Implying that her supporters were possibly deceived by Haven's original release, the label added: "Our industry must not permit this to become the new normal."

Creators Admit Employing AI Tools

The duo behind the track have publicly confirmed utilizing AI during its production process.

Producer Harrison Walker explained that the initial vocals were actually his own but were heavily manipulated using music-generation software Suno, often referred to as the "ChatGPT for music".

Meanwhile, the other producer, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, stated on social media that AI was used to "give our original vocal a feminine tone".

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they wrote and produced the song themselves and have even shared files of their source computer files.

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

"As a creator and producer, I enjoy experimenting with innovative technologies, methods and staying on the forefront of industry trends," he added.

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

Regulatory Uncertainty and Broader Impact

Although their original release of 'I Run' was blocked from official rankings, the replacement recording did enter the UK Top 40 last week.

FAMM has positioned the entire episode as a critical precedent for the music industry's changing interaction with AI.

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

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

Artists as 'Collateral Victims'

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

The text warned that artists and songwriters were becoming "collateral damage in the race by governments and tech firms towards AI supremacy".

It further noted that the label would share any potential songwriting credits with the writers behind Smith's music.

"Should we are successful in establishing that AI assisted to compose the lyrics and tune in 'I Run' and are granted a portion of the song, we would seek to allocate every one of Jorja's collaborators with a corresponding share," it detailed.

The Ongoing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

The emergence of algorithmically created music has been a source of both fascination and anxiety for the music industry.

• In June, the band Velvet Sundown accumulated millions of streams before revealing they used AI to help craft 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 necessarily opposed to hearing computer-generated music.
• Suno was previously taken to court for copyright infringement by the industry's major largest record labels, but those cases have now been settled.

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

However, it remains uncertain how a large number of well-known artists will consent to such uses of their work.

Recently, a collective of prominent artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush released a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or recordings of quiet studios in opposition to proposed revisions to copyright law.

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