Elvis Presley’s Rights Holders Sue Anthropic Over Alleged Use of Songs to Train AI

Los Angeles: The owners of Elvis Presley’s music have sued AI company Anthropic, alleging it used his songs to train its models without permission, according to reports.

The suit, filed Friday, claims infringement of 274 Presley songs, including “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” “A Little Less Conversation” and “Don’t Be Cruel.” Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to Presley, filed it alongside other entities holding rights to the singer’s catalogue. Lead attorney Richard Busch said in the complaint that the defendant built its business model on copyright infringement at an unprecedented scale and that the plaintiffs are deeply protective of the songs.

The complaint alleges that Anthropic’s Claude has produced infringing output of copyrighted material from virtually every song catalogue available online, including Presley’s works. It further claims that even after Anthropic put guardrails in place following earlier lawsuits, a recent version of Claude continued to infringe. According to the filing, when asked to recreate specific songs for a modern audience, the model did so and acknowledged that its versions stayed very close to the originals, with the same structure and hooks and full verses, choruses and bridges.

Rolling Stone reports the plaintiffs are seeking $150,000 per infringed song.

The case adds to legal pressure on the company. In August, publisher Round Hill sued Suno and Anthropic over alleged mass infringement, and Anthropic was earlier sued by Universal Music Publishing, Abcko, Concord and BMG over claims that lyrics were used to train Claude.