Jorja Smith's record label hits out at 'AI clone' song
51 minutes ago Share Save Mark Savage Music correspondent Share Save
BBC Smith's vocals were allegedly copied in the creation of Haven's viral hit, I Run
Brit Award-winning singer Jorja Smith's record label has said it wants a share of the royalties for a song it claims was created using an artificial intelligence "clone" of the singer's voice. I Run by British dance act Haven went viral on TiKTok in October thanks, in part, to smooth soul vocals by an uncredited female singer. It was heading for the charts in the UK and the US but was banned by streaming services after record industry bodies issued takedown notices, alleging the track violated copyright by impersonating another artist. Although I Run has now been re-released with new vocals, Smith's label FAMM said it believes the track was made with AI trained on her work, and is seeking compensation.
"This isn't just about Jorja. It's bigger than one artist or one song," FAMM wrote in a statement on Instagram. The label said it believes "both versions of the track infringe on Jorja's rights and unfairly take advantage of the work of all the songwriters with whom she collaborates". Smith is known for songs like Be Honest and Little Things, and was named best British female at the Brit Awards in 2019. Suggesting that her fans had been misled by Haven's track, the label added: "We cannot allow this to become the new normal".
The team behind the song have admitted using AI during its creation. Producer and songwriter Harrison Walker said the original vocals were actually his own, but were heavily manipulated using music-generation software Suno - sometimes called the "ChatGPT for music". Meanwhile, the second producer Waypoint, real name Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on social media that AI was used to "give our original vocal a female tone".
Haven / Instagram Producer Waypoint confirmed the use of AI in a social media post
Donaghue and Walker maintain that they wrote and produced the song - and even shared videos of their original computer files with Billboard magazine. "It shouldn't be any secret that I used AI-assisted vocal processing to transform solely my voice for I Run," Walker explained. "As a songwriter and producer I enjoy using new tools, techniques and staying on the cutting edge of what's happening. "To set the record straight, the artists behind HAVEN. are real and human, and all we want to do is make great music for other humans." Suno has admitted that its software was trained on copyrighted works, claiming that doing so was legal under the "fair use" laws - which allows copyrighted material to be quoted for purposes such as criticism, news reporting and research. However, it is not known whether Smith's recordings formed part of that training data. According to Haven, they simply prompted the software to use "soulful vocal samples" while creating their song.
Jorja Smith has won two Brit Awards, including best female artist in 2019
While their original version of I Run was suspended by both the Official Charts Company in the UK and the Billboard Charts in America, the replacement entered the UK Top 40 last week. FAMM framed the original song's existence as a test case for the music industry's relationship with AI. The label said it had "a duty to speak up" and "encourage public discourse", because AI is proliferating at an "alarming rate and substantially outpacing regulation". "AI material should be clearly labelled as such so that the public may choose whether they consume AI material or not," the statement continued.
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