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The record label representing Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith has declared its intention to receive a share of earnings from a track it asserts was produced using an artificial intelligence "clone" of the singer's unique vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by UK electronic duo Haven, achieved massive traction on TikTok in October, in part due to its smooth soul singing by an unnamed woman singer.

Despite its success and potential top 40 position in the UK and US, the track was subsequently banned by major streaming platforms after music bodies issued copyright notices, alleging it breached copyright by impersonating another artist.

Although 'I Run' has now been reissued with different vocals, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it believes the initial version was made with AI trained on her body of work and is now pursuing financial compensation.

A Larger Issue in Play

"This is not only about one artist. This is larger than a single performer or one song," the label stated in a recent announcement.

FAMM further stated its view that "both iterations of the song violate the artist's rights and unfairly benefit from the creative output of all the writers with whom she works."

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

Suggesting that her fans were potentially deceived by Haven's original track, the label added: "Our industry must not permit this to become the new normal."

Producers Admit Employing AI Technology

The duo behind the track have publicly admitted utilizing AI in its creation.

Songwriter Harrison Walker clarified that the original vocals were actually his own but were heavily altered using music-generation platform Suno, often called the "advanced tool for music".

Meanwhile, the other member, Waypoint, whose real name is Jacob Donaghue, stated on his accounts 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 files of their source production sessions.

"This is no secret that I used AI-powered vocal editing to transform exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

"As a songwriter and maker, I like using innovative technologies, techniques and remaining on the forefront of industry trends," he continued.

"To set the facts clear, the people behind HAVEN are actual and human, and all we want to do is make great music for fellow humans."

Legal Gray Areas and Industry Impact

While their original version of 'I Run' was suspended from official rankings, the new version managed to break into the UK Top 40 recently.

FAMM has positioned the entire episode as a significant test case for the entertainment sector's changing relationship with artificial intelligence.

The label argued it had "a duty to speak up" and "stimulate wider discussion", because AI is proliferating at an "alarming rate and substantially outpacing regulation".

"Computer-created material should be transparently labelled as such so that the public may decide whether they listen to it or not," the message added.

Artists as 'Collateral Damage'

Smith shared her label's statement on her own Instagram page.

The post warned that artists and songwriters were becoming "collateral damage in the race by governments and tech firms towards AI dominance".

It also stated that the label would share any potential royalties with the writers behind Smith's music.

"Should we are able in proving that AI helped to compose the words and tune in 'I Run' and are awarded a share of the song, we would seek to assign each of Jorja's co-writers with a pro-rata share," it explained.

The Ongoing Rise of AI Music

The proliferation of AI-generated music has been a topic of both interest and anxiety for the entertainment world.

• In the summer, the band Velvet Sundown accumulated millions of plays before disclosing they used AI to help craft their sound.
• Last month, an AI-generated "performer" known as Breaking Rust topped a US country digital song sales chart, showing that audiences are not necessarily opposed to hearing computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year sued for copyright infringement by the industry's major largest record labels, but those cases have since been settled.

Subsequently, Warner Music established a partnership with the firm, which will enable users to generate songs using the voices, names, and likenesses of Warner artists who agree to the program.

However, it remains unclear how many established musicians will consent to such uses of their work.

Just last week, a collective of prominent musicians including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album containing silent songs or audio of empty studios in opposition to proposed revisions to intellectual property regulations.

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