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The record label representing award-winning artist Jorja Smith has declared its desire to receive a share of earnings from a song it asserts was produced using an artificial intelligence "replica" of the singer's unique vocal style.

The track, titled 'I Run' by UK electronic duo Haven, achieved widespread traction on social media last October, in part due to its polished soul vocals by an uncredited female vocalist.

Although its momentum and potential top 40 entry in both UK and US, the track was subsequently removed by major streaming platforms after industry bodies issued copyright notices, alleging it breached copyright by impersonating another musician.

Although 'I Run' has now been re-released with completely new singing, Smith's label, FAMM, insists it is convinced the original version was generated with AI trained on her body of recordings and is now pursuing appropriate compensation.

A Larger Principle in Play

"This isn't just about one artist. This is larger than a single performer or one song," the label wrote in a recent statement.

FAMM further expressed its view that "both versions of the track violate the artist's rights and unfairly benefit from the work of all the writers with whom she works."

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

Suggesting that her fans were possibly deceived by Haven's original release, the label added: "We must not permit this to become the new normal."

Producers Acknowledge Using AI Tools

The team behind the track have publicly admitted utilizing AI during its creation.

Producer Harrison Walker clarified that the initial voice were in fact his own but were extensively manipulated using music-generation platform Suno, often referred to as the "ChatGPT for music".

Meanwhile, the other producer, Waypoint, identified as Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on his accounts that AI was used to "apply our starting vocal a female quality".

Donaghue and Walker assert that they wrote and produced the song themselves and have even shared evidence of their original computer files.

"It is no mystery that I used AI-assisted vocal processing to convert exclusively my voice for 'I Run'," Walker said.

"Being a songwriter and maker, I enjoy using innovative technologies, techniques and remaining on the forefront of what's happening," he added.

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

Legal Uncertainty and Industry Implications

Although their first version of 'I Run' was suspended from major charts, the new version managed to enter the UK Top 40 last week.

FAMM has positioned the entire episode as a critical test case for the music industry's evolving interaction with AI.

The label argued it had "a duty to voice concerns" and "encourage wider discussion", because AI is proliferating at an "rapid rate and substantially exceeding legal oversight".

"AI-generated material should be transparently identified as such so that the audience may choose whether they listen to it or not," the message continued.

Creators Become 'Collateral Damage'

Smith endorsed her label's statement on her personal Instagram profile.

The text cautioned that artists and songwriters were becoming "unintended casualties in the race by policymakers and corporations towards AI supremacy".

It further noted that the label would distribute any awarded songwriting credits with the writers behind Smith's music.

"Should we are successful in establishing that AI assisted to write the lyrics and melody in 'I Run' and are awarded a portion of the song, we would aim to assign each of Jorja's collaborators with a pro-rata share," it detailed.

The Continuing Rise of AI Music

The proliferation of algorithmically created music has been a source of both fascination and anxiety for the entertainment world.

• In the summer, the group Velvet Sundown accumulated millions of plays before revealing they used AI to aid develop their musical style.
• Last month, an AI-generated "performer" known as Breaking Rust topped a US country digital song sales chart, showing that listeners are not always opposed to consuming computer-generated music.
• Suno was last year taken to court for alleged violations by the industry's major largest record labels, but those legal actions have since been settled.

Following this, Warner Music entered into a partnership with the firm, which will allow users to create songs using the voices, names, and likenesses of Warner artists who agree to the program.

Yet, it remains uncertain how many well-known artists will consent to such uses of their work.

Just last week, a group of prominent artists including Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, and Kate Bush issued a vinyl album featuring tracks of silence or recordings of empty studios in opposition to potential changes to intellectual property regulations.

They argue these amendments would make it easier for AI companies to train models using copyrighted work without securing a license.