Elvis Presley rights owner seeks $41m from Anthropic over AI training tracks
Authentic Brands Group is suing Anthropic, alleging the AI company used 274 Elvis Presley songs to train its Claude models without permission. The case is among the first major copyright challenges brought directly by an artist’s rights owner against an AI developer, and its outcome could influence how AI companies use music catalogues.
The songs named include “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, “All Shook Up” and “A Little Less Conversation”. The plaintiffs are seeking $150,000 for each track, about $41m in total; Anthropic has not responded in the article. The lawsuit also alleges that Claude can produce copyright-infringing material despite safeguards, amid wider disputes over AI training and music rights.
In short
- Elvis Presley’s rights owner is suing Anthropic over 274 songs.
- The claim seeks about $41m in damages.
- The case could shape AI use of music catalogues.
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The case for
Rights owners can argue that using 274 songs to train a commercial AI system without permission takes value from creators’ work and bypasses the licensing arrangements that normally govern its use. Seeking compensation may protect artists’ and successors’ ability to control their catalogues, while a ruling could clarify whether AI developers must obtain licences for music used in training.
The case against
Anthropic and other AI developers could argue that training models on existing works is a transformative form of analysis, rather than the distribution or sale of the songs themselves, and that requiring permission for every training work could impede research and innovation. They may also dispute whether the alleged use caused compensable harm or whether Claude’s outputs infringe copyright, questions the lawsuit’s claims alone do not settle.
Explained simply
Elvis Presley’s recordings and related rights are controlled by companies that manage his name and music catalogue. Authentic Brands Group, which owns rights connected to Presley, says Anthropic used songs from that catalogue to train Claude, its artificial intelligence system.
AI systems learn patterns from large collections of material, including text, images and music. Copyright disputes have arisen over whether companies need permission to use protected works for training, and whether AI systems can generate material that infringes those rights.
The case could help clarify how copyright law applies to AI training and generated content. Its outcome may affect both developers of AI systems and musicians or rights holders whose work is included in training collections.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “Anthropic sued for allegedly using 274 Elvis Presley songs to train AI models”.