Elvis songs for AI training? Anthropic sued twice in three days by music rights holders
Elvis Presley's rights holders accuse Anthropic of using 274 songs without permission for its AI model Claude. Two days earlier, publisher Reservoir had sued over 853 works.
Archive image · Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Library of Congress) / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
The owners of Elvis Presley's music filed a lawsuit against AI company Anthropic on Friday (23 October). The plaintiffs include a unit of brand company Authentic Brands Group and other holders of rights to Presley's songs. They accuse Anthropic of using 274 songs – including “Can't Help Falling in Love”, “A Little Less Conversation” and “Don't Be Cruel” – without permission to train its AI models. According to the complaint, Claude kept producing very close copies even after safeguards were added.
According to Rolling Stone, the plaintiffs are seeking 150,000 dollars per song, which works out at just over 41 million dollars. “The Elvis Plaintiffs are deeply protective of these iconic songs,” said their lawyer Richard Busch. Anthropic initially did not comment, the Hollywood Reporter said.
On 21 October, music publisher Reservoir had already sued Anthropic in federal court in Northern California over 853 works, including “Big Yellow Taxi”, “Ring of Fire” and “Papa Don't Preach”. The maximum amounts sought could add up to around 151 million dollars; a separate suit targets AI music service Suno. Anthropic told Billboard it disagrees with the allegations and intends to defend the case vigorously. Neither case has been decided.