The rights holders of Elvis Presley’s music have sued Anthropic in California, according to reports by US media. They allege that the company behind the Claude chatbot fed more than 270 Presley songs into its artificial intelligence training without authorization from those responsible for managing the singer’s musical legacy.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of several parties, seeks total damages of more than $41 million, or $150,000 per song, according to The New York Times. The songs cited include Can’t Help Falling in Love, A Little Less Conversation and Return to Sender.
The claim also accuses Anthropic of bypassing measures designed to protect the music and of removing or altering copyright information in the songs. Billboard reported that the complaint was filed on October 23.
Anthropic did not initially respond to an inquiry from the German Press Agency. However, the company told The New York Times on October 25 that it disputed the allegations and intended to defend itself against the lawsuit.
The case is part of a wider series of legal disputes involving music companies and AI developers over the use of copyrighted works to train models. The lawsuit’s filing reportedly describes Anthropic’s business model as being built on copyright infringement on an unprecedented scale.
Other AI companies, including OpenAI, have also faced allegations and lawsuits related to the development of their models. These systems are trained using large quantities of material from sources such as books and the internet. The legal status of that use remains unsettled, while companies such as Anthropic generally argue that fair use permits the use of copyrighted material when it contributes to creating something new.
Sources: t3n.