Music Publishers Sue Anthropic, Alleging Company Used Song Lyrics To Train AI
Naming over 500 copyrighted songs that were allegedly used.
Universal Music, ABKCO and Concord Publishing have teamed up to file a lawsuit against AI company Anthropic. The music publishers took to the Tennesse federal court to accuse Anthropic of using copyrighted song lyrics to train its AI chatbot, Claude.
The lawsuit names over 500 songs that Anthropic allegedly took the lyrics from, with the music publishers claiming copyright infringement. The publishers say in the suit that Anthropic took “massive amounts of text” in the form of lyrics without their permission.
Among the songs named in the lawsuit are Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and Beyonce’s “Halo,” along with other tracks across genres.
An attorney for the music publishers said that it’s “well-established by copyright law that an entity cannot reproduce, distribute, and display someone else’s copyrighted works to build its own business unless it secures permission from rightsholders,” per Reuters.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former senior employees of OpenAI. Its AI chatbot, Claude, was launched earlier this year as a competitor to ChatGPT.
In other music news, Jorja Smith and J Hus’ “Feelings” music video channels a revamped Bonnie & Clyde.
