Authentic Brands Group, the entity holding the music catalog rights for Elvis Presley, has initiated legal action against artificial intelligence company Anthropic. The lawsuit alleges that Anthropic used 274 of Elvis Presley’s songs without permission to train its AI models, and is seeking $41 million in damages. This case marks one of the first major legal disputes launched directly by the estate manager of a famous artist against an AI development firm, and its outcome could establish a legal precedent for the lawful use of music catalogs by AI technologies.

The plaintiff has argued that Anthropic’s business model is fundamentally reliant on widespread copyright violations, with its Claude model capable of producing a substantial volume of infringing songs. Furthermore, the post-implementation protective measures have proven ineffective, and the company has shown a laissez-faire attitude towards the generation of infringing content, indicating intentional wrongdoing.

Currently, AI music platforms typically learn musical traits and create new compositions by analyzing extensive collections of recorded works. This practice has raised concerns among musicians, who fear that their creations and vocal styles may be exploited without compensation, and that authentic music could be overshadowed by low-quality AI-generated alternatives. Recently, the streaming service Spotify removed around 50 million low-quality AI-generated tracks from its recommendation algorithms over the past year.