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The record label representing Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith has declared its intention to receive a share of royalties from a track it asserts was created using an AI "clone" of the singer's distinctive vocal style.

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

Despite its momentum and impending top 40 entry in both UK and US, the track was later banned by leading music services after music bodies issued copyright requests, alleging it breached copyright by impersonating another artist.

Even though 'I Run' has now been re-released with different singing, Smith's label, FAMM, maintains it is convinced the initial recording was made with AI trained on her extensive work and is now pursuing appropriate redress.

A Larger Issue in Play

"This is not only about one artist. It's bigger than a single performer or one song," the label wrote in a recent announcement.

FAMM further expressed its belief that "each iterations of the track violate Jorja's rights and unjustly benefit from the creative output of all the songwriters with whom she works."

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

Suggesting that her supporters were possibly misled by Haven's first release, the label concluded: "Our industry cannot permit this to be the standard practice."

Producers Admit Using AI Technology

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

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

In addition, the second producer, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on social media that AI was used to "give our starting vocal a female tone".

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

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

"As a creator and producer, I like experimenting with new tools, techniques and staying on the cutting edge of what's happening," he continued.

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

Legal Gray Areas and Broader Implications

Although their first version of 'I Run' was blocked from official charts, the replacement recording did enter the UK Top 40 recently.

FAMM has framed the entire episode as a critical precedent for the entertainment sector's evolving 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 outpacing regulation".

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

Artists as 'Unintended Damage'

Smith shared her label's position on her personal social media page.

The post cautioned that musicians and songwriters were becoming "collateral damage in the race by policymakers and tech firms towards AI dominance".

It also stated that the label would share any potential songwriting credits with the writers behind Smith's catalogue.

"If we are successful in establishing that AI helped to write the words and melody in 'I Run' and are awarded a portion of the song, we would seek to assign every one of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it detailed.

The Ongoing Growth of Computer-Generated Music

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

• In the summer, the band Velvet Sundown accumulated millions of streams before disclosing they used AI to aid develop their sound.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust led a US country sales chart, demonstrating that audiences are not necessarily opposed to consuming computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year sued for copyright infringement by the world's three largest record labels, though those legal actions have now been resolved.

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

However, it is uncertain how many well-known artists will consent to such applications of their identity.

Just last week, a collective of renowned artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush released a vinyl album containing tracks of silence or recordings of empty studios in opposition to proposed changes to copyright law.

They argue these changes would make it easier for AI companies to train models using copyrighted work without obtaining a license.