Authentic Brands Group, along with other entities holding rights to Elvis Presley's music, filed a lawsuit on Friday, October 23, in federal court against artificial intelligence developer Anthropic. The complaint alleges that Anthropic infringed on the copyrights of 274 Presley songs by using them to train its Claude AI models without obtaining licenses or permission. The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each infringed song, totaling roughly $41.1 million.
The lawsuit claims that Anthropic's AI model, Claude, has generated unauthorized versions of existing songs and that its business model is built upon copyright infringement "at a scale never seen before." Specific songs named in the filing include "Can't Help Falling in Love," "A Little Less Conversation," "Don't Be Cruel," "All Shook Up," "Return to Sender," and "(You're the) Devil in Disguise." Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and Authentic Brands Group entered an exclusive global publishing agreement in 2022 to represent Presley's catalog, which includes many of these well-known titles.
According to the complaint, Claude has produced "infringing output of copyrighted material of virtually every song from every catalog available on the internet," including the Presley works in question. The plaintiffs further allege that even after Anthropic reportedly implemented "guardrails" following previous lawsuits, Claude continued to infringe. When asked to recreate specific songs "for a modern audience," the AI model reportedly produced renders "very close to the originals: same structure, same hooks reused with light rewording, and full sets of verses/choruses/bridges," according to the lawsuit.
Anthropic has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit. However, the company has previously stated that training AI models on copyrighted material may be protected under United States Fair Use laws. An Anthropic spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the company disagrees with the claims and intends to defend the case fully.
This legal action is part of a growing number of lawsuits from music rights holders against AI developers. In October 2023, Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group, and ABKCO sued Anthropic, alleging that Claude reproduced copyrighted lyrics without authorization. BMG has also filed suit over lyrics from artists such as Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, and the Rolling Stones. The Presley lawsuit marks one of the first major legal challenges brought directly by an artist's estate against an AI developer, and its outcome could establish a precedent for how AI companies may use existing music catalogs. Lead attorney Richard Busch, who represented the Marvin Gaye estate in the "Blurred Lines" case, is representing the Presley plaintiffs.