Record companies are seeking to prevent AI music generators from training AI models on copyrighted media. Image source: pvproductions, via Freepik
Several notable record companies are suing popular AI song generators for training their AI models on copyrighted work.
Major AI companies Suno AI and Udio AI are currently being taken to court over concerns that the database the programs use to generate music is unlawfully acquired.
The record companies are Universal Music Group, Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Atlantic Records Group, Arista Records, Rhino Entertainment, The All Blacks USA, Warner Music Limited and Warner Records.
These companies are seeking declarations that Suno AI and Udio AI infringed on copyright, that the copyrighted recordings can’t be used in the future, and to pay damages for the infringements that have already occurred.
The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) provided a statement explaining that the AI companies are being sued separately.
Both Suno AI and Udio AI deny the claims, with Mikey Shulman, CEO of Suno AI, stating that the technology doesn’t allow users to reference specific artists when generating music.
Shulman explained that Suno AI was “designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorise and regurgitate pre-existing content”.
Udio AI provided a similar statement, stating that “the goal of model training is to develop an understanding of musical ideas — the basic building blocks of musical expression that are owned by no-one”.
Mitch Glazier, RIAA CEO, was asked why these companies were being sued when they claim they do not reuse pre-existing content, he explained that the lawsuit was “about the input”.
“This is a lawsuit that says, you’re not allowed to copy all of the music that’s out there, and then mix it up in a blender and put out this new output.”
Glazier explained how “most of these AI platforms scrape the internet and copy recorded music from hundreds of artists to train their AI models.”
“They copied them without permission, then copied them without attribution and they copied them without compensation.”
“The lawsuit is very clear, you are not allowed to make the copy in the first place regardless of the output.”
Suno AI has not disclosed the dataset used to train their AI model while Udio AI has refrained from disclosing the process used to generate the music itself.
