The owners of Elvis Presley’s music have filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Anthropic, accusing it of using hundreds of Presley’s copyrighted songs and lyrics without authorization to train its AI models. The legal action, brought by Authentic Brands Group and other rights holders, was filed on Friday and seeks $41.1 million in statutory copyright damages.
According to the complaint, Anthropic is alleged to have infringed the copyrights of 274 songs associated with Presley, including well-known hits such as “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” “All Shook Up,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “A Little Less Conversation,” and “Return To Sender.” The plaintiffs claim Anthropic did not obtain any license or pay compensation for the use of these works.
The lawsuit asserts that Anthropic’s AI technology is capable of generating unauthorized versions of existing songs, reproducing copyrighted lyrics, and creating adaptations without the approval of the rights holders. The plaintiffs argue that this infringement has taken place throughout the entire development of Anthropic’s flagship Claude models and continues as users generate outputs based on Presley’s music.
Authentic Brands Group, which controls Presley’s intellectual property, is joined in the lawsuit by other companies, trusts, and individuals with rights to his music. Their attorney stated that they are “guardians of, and highly protective of, Elvis’s songs which are some of the most iconic of all time.”
Anthropic has not yet issued a public response to the lawsuit. However, the company has previously maintained that training AI models on copyrighted material can fall under the protection of U.S. fair use law. In similar cases, Anthropic has argued in court that its actions are legally permissible, and it is currently involved in other high-profile copyright disputes with major music publishers.
The legal action against Anthropic comes amid a broader wave of lawsuits targeting AI companies accused of using copyrighted musical works without consent or compensation. Earlier this year, Universal Music Group filed a $3 billion lawsuit against Anthropic, and other publishers have made similar claims regarding the use of their catalogs in AI training.
The outcome of these cases could have significant implications for the use of copyrighted material in AI development and the responsibilities of technology companies toward rights holders. The court will now consider whether Anthropic’s use of Presley’s music constitutes copyright infringement or is protected as fair use under current law.
It remains unclear how Anthropic will respond to the latest lawsuit or whether the parties might seek a settlement. The case is expected to be closely watched by both the music industry and the technology sector as debate continues over the boundaries of AI training and copyright law.
The image accompanying this article is an AI-generated illustrative depiction inspired by the actual scene of the event.
