Elvis Presley Rightsholders Sue Anthropic for Training on 274 Songs Without Permission

The owners of Elvis Presley's music have filed a legal complaint against AI company Anthropic for allegedly using hundreds of the singer's songs without permission to train its models. The lawsuit, filed on October 23, alleges that Anthropic infringed on 274 of Elvis's copyrighted songs, including hits like "Can't Help Falling in Love," "A Little Less Conversation," and "Don't Be Cruel."

Richard Busch, the lead attorney behind the lawsuit, stated that the plaintiffs are "deeply protective of these iconic songs" and aim to enforce their exclusive rights against the company. This is the most high-profile legal action taken on behalf of an individual musician, given Elvis Presley's iconic status. The case was filed by Authentic Brands Group, a licensing entity that controls much of Elvis's intellectual property rights, including his song catalog, brand trademarks, and rights to his name, image, and likeness.

The lawsuit joins a growing number of AI companies facing lawsuits over the process of training their models, which involves ingesting millions of existing works without permission. Anthropic has previously faced similar accusations from music publishers.