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The music company representing Brit Award-winning artist Jorja Smith has declared its desire to receive a portion of royalties from a song it claims was produced using an AI "clone" of the performer's distinctive voice.

The song, titled 'I Run' by UK electronic duo Haven, achieved massive traction on social media in October, in part due to its polished soul vocals by an unnamed woman vocalist.

Although its success and impending top 40 entry in both UK and US, the song was subsequently removed by leading music services after industry organizations issued takedown notices, alleging it breached intellectual property law by impersonating another musician.

Even though 'I Run' has now been reissued with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it is convinced the initial recording was generated with AI trained on her extensive work and is now seeking financial redress.

A Larger Issue at Stake

"The situation isn't just about Jorja. This is larger than a single performer or one song," the label wrote in a recent announcement.

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 songwriters with whom she works."

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

Suggesting that her fans were potentially deceived by Haven's first release, the label added: "We cannot permit this to become the standard practice."

Producers Admit Employing AI Tools

The team responsible for the track have openly admitted using AI in its production process.

Producer Harrison Walker clarified that the original voice were in fact his own but were extensively manipulated using AI music software Suno, often referred to as the "advanced tool for music".

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

Donaghue and Walker assert that they composed and created the music themselves and have even provided evidence of their source production sessions.

"It is no mystery that I used AI-assisted vocal editing to transform solely my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

"As a songwriter and maker, I like experimenting with new tools, techniques and remaining on the cutting edge of what's happening," he added.

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

Legal Gray Areas and Broader Impact

Although their original version of 'I Run' was suspended from major charts, the new version managed to 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 AI.

The label argued it had "a duty to speak up" and "encourage public discourse", because AI is proliferating at an "alarming rate and significantly exceeding legal oversight".

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

Artists as 'Unintended Victims'

Smith shared her label's statement on her personal social media profile.

The text cautioned that musicians and creators were becoming "unintended casualties in the race by governments and corporations towards AI supremacy".

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

"If we are able in establishing that AI helped to compose the words and melody in 'I Run' and are awarded a portion of the song, we would aim to allocate each of Jorja's co-writers with a corresponding share," it explained.

The Ongoing Growth of AI Music

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

• In June, the band Velvet Sundown gathered millions of streams before revealing they used AI to aid develop their musical style.
• Recently, an AI-generated "artist" known as Breaking Rust led a US genre sales chart, showing that audiences are not always averse to hearing AI-made music.
• Suno was last year sued for copyright infringement by the world's major largest record labels, but those cases have since been settled.

Following this, Warner Music entered into a collaboration with the company, which will allow users to generate songs using the vocal likenesses, names, and images of Warner acts who agree to the service.

However, it remains uncertain how a large number of established artists will agree to such applications of their work.

Just last week, a group of renowned artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album featuring silent songs or recordings of quiet studios in opposition to proposed revisions to intellectual property regulations.

They argue these amendments would make it easier for AI companies to develop models using protected work without obtaining a permission.