Record labels sue two AI startups for copyright infringement
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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
The major US record labels are suing a pair of AI music startups saying their products constitute mass copyright infringement.
Why it matters: The suits represent the latest effort by content creators to ask a court to declare that the training and operation of generative AI systems do not represent "fair use" of copyrighted works.
Driving the news: The cases, filed in federal court on Monday, are against Suno, developer of Suno AI, and Uncharted Labs, the developer of Udio AI, with the former being filed in Massachusetts and the latter filed in the Southern District of New York.
- Among the entities suing are Sony Music Entertainment,
UMG and Warner Records with claims covering multiple genres, styles and eras of music. - In both cases the labels are seeking a declaration that the services infringed on copyrighted recordings, an injunction barring further infringement and monetary damages
What they're saying: "The music community has embraced AI and we are already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers," said Mitch Glazier, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. "But we can only succeed if developers are willing to work together with us."
The other side: "Our technology is transformative; it is designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorize and regurgitate pre-existing content," Mikey Shulman, CEO of Suno said in a statement to Axios. "That is why we don't allow user prompts that reference specific artists."
- "Our system is explicitly designed to create music reflecting new musical ideas," Udio wrote in a blog post as response to the lawsuit filing. "We are completely uninterested in reproducing content in our training set, and in fact, have implemented and continue to refine state-of-the-art filters to ensure our model does not reproduce copyrighted works or artists' voices."
The big picture: The suits echo similar actions brought by authors, newspaper publishers and artists who argue that generative AI systems infringe on copyright both in their training and through their output.
- A number of leading AI companies have stated they believe their systems are engaging in legally protected "fair use".
- While courts have yet to really weigh in, the stakes for both parties are huge.
Go deeper: Music lyrics lawsuit could set AI copyright precedent
Editor's note: This story was updated with a statement from Suno and Udio.
