Jorja Smith’s record label suing for royalties of viral song which used AI clone of singer’s voice
The record label of Jorja Smith is suing for a share of the royalties of a song that went viral on TikTok last month, after it emerged an AI clone had been used to impersonate the British singer-songwriter’s voice.
The track ‘I Run’ by dance act Haven gained huge popularity on the social media platform when it was released at the start of October, but controversy ensued when it was removed from streaming platforms after it was discovered that the uncredited female vocals on the song were generated by AI.
‘I Run’ had been on course to chart highly in both the UK and US, but despite now having been re-released with new vocals, Smith’s record label FAMM released a statement over the weekend on Instagram to announce that it intended to sue in order to gain royalties from the supposed likeness to the singer’s voice.
“This isn’t just about Jorja. It’s bigger than one artist or one song,” the label wrote, adding that despite the new version of the song having been sung by a human, 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”.
Per BBC News, the song’s producer and writer, Harrison Walker, previously confirmed that the original vocals on ‘I Run’ were performed by him, but had been altered using an AI music software called Sumo to make it sound like a woman was singing.
In its social media statement, FAMM said: “We believe that AI was used to write the lyrics and melody to ‘I Run’,” adding that a likeness to Smith’s voice was used “without permission.”
They claimed that this “suggest[ed] to the public that this was an unreleased Jorja Smith track,” pointing to evidence of TikTok posts made by Haven of the song, which used Smith’s name as a hashtag in the caption.
The record label claimed that Haven then reached out to them after ‘I Run’ had gone viral to ask if Smith would collaborate on a remix, in an attempt to “legitimise” the track, which they ignored.
The singer herself responded by sharing FAMM’s statement on her page, but has not added any further comments amid the situation.
Although Haven has not yet commented publicly on the new development, Walker previously stated that everyone behind it is “real and human, and all we want to do is make great music for other humans,” despite having admitted to using AI on the song.
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