Jorja Smith’s record label wants royalties from ‘AI clone’ song I Run by Haven

Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith's label has said it wants a share of royalties from a song it claims was created using an artificial intelligence “clone” of the singer's voice.

British dance group Haven's song “I Run” went viral on TiKTok in October, thanks in part to the soft soul vocals of the uncredited singer.

It topped the UK and US charts but was banned by streaming services after record industry bodies issued takedown notices claiming the track infringed copyright by impersonating another artist.

Although I Run has now been re-released with new vocals, Smith's label FAMM said it believes the track was created by artificial intelligence trained on her work and is seeking compensation.

“It's not just about George. It's more than one artist or one song.” This is stated in a statement by FAMM on Instagram..

The label said it believes “both versions of the track violate Georgie's rights and unfairly exploit the work of all the songwriters she collaborates with.”

Smith is known for songs such as Be Honest and Little Things and was named Best British Female at the 2019 Brit Awards.

Suggesting her fans were misled by Haven's track, the label added: “We can't let this become the new normal.”

The team who wrote the song admitted that they used artificial intelligence to create it.

Producer and songwriter Harrison Walker said that the original vocals were actually his own, but were heavily processed using Suno music production software, sometimes called “ChatGPT for music“.

Meanwhile, Waypoint's second producer, real name Jacob Donahue, confirmed on social media that artificial intelligence was used to “give our original vocals a feminine tone.”

Donahue and Walker claim that they wrote and produced the song – and even shared videos of their original computer files with Billboard magazine.

“It should be no secret that I used AI voice processing to transform just my voice into 'I'm running,'” Walker explained.

“As a songwriter and producer, I like to try new tools, techniques and stay on top of what's going on.

“To be clear, the artists of HAVEN. real and human, and all we want to do is make great music for other people.”

Suno has acknowledged that its software was trained on copyrighted works and argues that it is legal under “fair use” laws, which allow citation of copyrighted material for purposes such as criticism, news reporting and research.

However, it is unknown whether Smith's recordings were included in this training data. According to Haven, they simply suggested that the program use “soulful vocal samples” when creating the song.

Although their original version of I Run was suspended by both the official UK charts and the Billboard charts in America, the new version entered the UK top 40 last week.

FAMM called the existence of the original song a test of the music industry's relationship with artificial intelligence.

The label said it has a “commitment to speak out” and “encourage public debate” as AI is spreading “at an alarming rate and is significantly outpacing regulation.”

“AI materials must be clearly labeled as such so that the public can choose whether or not to consume AI materials,” the statement further said.

Smith shared FAMM's statement on her Instagram page.

He warned that artists and other creators are becoming “collateral damage in the race by governments and corporations for AI dominance.”

It also stated that the label would share royalties with the writers of Smith's music.

“If we can determine that AI helped write the lyrics and melody to 'I'm Running' and has a share in the song, we will seek to give each of Georgie's co-writers a proportionate share,” the post reads.

“This distribution will be based on [percentage] “Georgie's catalog that they contributed to, because ultimately, if an AI helped write 'I'm Running,' it would be trained on Georgie's catalog of songs.”

The rise of artificial intelligence in music has been a source of both fascination and consternation for the music industry.

In June, Velvet Sundown racked up millions of streams on Spotify before revealing they had used artificial intelligence to create their dusty, rock sound.

Last month, an AI-generated “artist” known as Breaking Rust topped the US digital song sales chart.

Suno was sued last year for copyright infringement by all three of the world's biggest record labels, but the cases have now been settled.

Warner Music subsequently entered into a partnership agreement with the companywhich will allow users to create AI-generated songs using the voices, names and images of Warner artists who have subscribed to the service.

It is unclear how many artists would agree to such use.

Last week, musicians including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Kate Bush released a vinyl album full of silent songs or recordings of empty studios to protest planned changes to copyright law that they say will make it easier for artificial intelligence companies to train models using copyrighted works without a license.

Previously the record was uploaded to streaming services in February.