Music industry legal actions against generative AI

Sony Music Group has initiated several legal and regulatory actions to address the impact of generative artificial intelligence on the music industry. The company joined the Coalition for Responsible AI in Music (ARIAM), an alliance including Disney and the BBC, to establish guardrails for protecting copyright and human artistry.

In tandem with these industry efforts, Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell Music filed a billion-dollar lawsuit against AI firm Anthropic and its CEO, Benjamin Mann. The plaintiffs allege that Anthropic scraped copyrighted lyrics, compositions, and sheet music to train its Claude AI model. The lawsuit seeks an injunction and statutory damages, citing the works of artists such as Taylor Swift and The Beatles.

Furthering its enforcement efforts, Sony Music Group requested the removal of more than 260,000 AI-generated deepfake tracks from digital platforms. This request, which nearly doubles the company’s previous takedown figure of 135,000, targets tracks that imitate the voices and likenesses of artists without permission. Sony described the effort to combat these deepfakes as an “uphill struggle,” noting that fraudulent streams divert revenue from legitimate creators.