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The music company representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has declared its intention to claim a share of earnings from a song it asserts was produced using an artificial intelligence "replica" of the singer's distinctive vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by British dance act Haven, achieved widespread traction on TikTok in October, partly due to its polished soul vocals by an unnamed female vocalist.

Despite its momentum and impending chart entry in the UK and US, the song was subsequently removed by leading music services after industry bodies issued copyright notices, stating it breached copyright by impersonating another musician.

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

A Larger Issue in Play

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

FAMM also expressed its belief that "both versions of the track infringe on Jorja's rights and unjustly take advantage of the work of all the songwriters with whom she works."

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

Suggesting that her supporters were potentially deceived by Haven's first track, the label concluded: "We cannot allow this to become the new normal."

Creators Admit Using AI Tools

The duo behind the song have publicly confirmed using AI in its production process.

Producer Harrison Walker explained that the original vocals were actually his own but were heavily altered using AI music software Suno, often called the "ChatGPT for music".

Meanwhile, the second member, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, stated on his accounts that AI was used to "give our original vocal a female tone".

Donaghue and Walker maintain that they wrote and produced the music themselves and have even provided evidence of their original production sessions.

"This shouldn't be secret that I used AI-powered vocal processing to convert solely my voice for 'I Run'," Walker elaborated.

"As a songwriter and maker, I like experimenting with new tools, methods and staying on the forefront of industry trends," he added.

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

Regulatory Gray Areas and Industry Implications

While their original release of 'I Run' was blocked from major charts, the new version did break into the UK Top 40 recently.

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

The label stated it had "a duty to speak up" and "encourage wider discussion", because AI is proliferating at an "alarming rate and substantially outpacing regulation".

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

Creators Become 'Collateral Damage'

Smith shared her label's position on her own Instagram profile.

The post warned that artists and songwriters were turning into "collateral damage in the competition by governments and corporations towards AI dominance".

It also stated that the label would distribute any potential royalties with the writers behind Smith's music.

"If we are successful in proving that AI helped to write the lyrics and tune in 'I Run' and are awarded a share of the song, we would aim to assign each of Jorja's collaborators with a corresponding share," it detailed.

The Ongoing Rise of AI Music

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

• In June, the band Velvet Sundown gathered vast numbers of streams before revealing they used AI to help craft their sound.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" called Breaking Rust topped a US genre digital song sales chart, demonstrating that listeners are not necessarily opposed to consuming computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for alleged violations by the industry's major largest record labels, though those cases have since been settled.

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

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

Just last week, a group of renowned artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush released a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or recordings of quiet studios in protest to proposed revisions to copyright law.

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