Universal Music files lawsuit against Anthropic for generating copyrighted lyrics

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots generating copyrighted works from major artists have long been a concern for studios. Now, in a recent development, Universal Music Group (UMG) and other music publishers have filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging that its chatbot distributed copyrighted lyrics without the necessary permissions.

At the heart of the drama is Anthropic’s AI chatbot, Claude 2, which reportedly generates lyrics similar to popular songs, such as Katy Perry’s “Roar,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” and the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Moreover, the fact that the chatbot generates phrases and lyrics similar to such songs without explicit instructions suggests that the company used copyrighted work to train its chatbot.

While sharing song lyrics online is common, the lawsuit filed by Universal Music in a federal court in Tennessee argues that Anthropic’s AI models are copying and spreading substantial amounts of copyrighted material. This means that the company not only failed to obtain proper licenses but also did not provide fair compensation or credit to the creators for their work.

“These responses make clear that Anthropic understands that generating output that copies others’ lyrics violates copyright law. However, despite this knowledge and apparent ability to exercise control over infringement, in most instances, Anthropic fails to implement effective guardrails to prevent the infringement of publishers’ works,” say the plaintiffs.

Part of a bigger problem

This lawsuit once again highlights the growing concerns of music labels as AI companies increasingly use copyrighted work to train their AI models. This has led to several lawsuits against other AI companies such as OpenAI, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney. However, what makes this situation worse is that Anthropic was one of the four companies present at a meeting at the White House in May to discuss responsible AI development with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Furthermore, while Universal Music acknowledges the value of AI tools, it states that what Anthropic did was copyright infringement rather than innovation. Moreover, UMG has also raised questions about Anthropic’s control over its chatbot since the company could stop it from responding to prompts that infringe on copyright.

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