Authentic Brands Group Sues Anthropic Over Alleged Unauthorized Use of 274 Elvis Presley Songs

According to The Guardian Technology, Authentic Brands Group, the organization that manages the music and likeness rights of Elvis Presley, filed a lawsuit on Friday against artificial intelligence firm Anthropic. According to the lawsuit, Anthropic allegedly utilized 274 songs from Presley’s catalog—including "Can’t Help Falling in Love," "All Shook Up," and "A Little Less Conversation"—to train its AI model, Claude, without permission.

Lead attorney Richard Busch stated in the filing that the defendant has "built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before." The plaintiffs are seeking damages of $150,000 per infringed track, totaling approximately $41 million. The lawsuit further alleges that Anthropic continued to engage in willful infringement even after attempting to implement guardrails intended to limit the output of copyrighted material.

This litigation marks a notable development in the intersection of generative AI and intellectual property, as it is among the first major legal challenges brought directly by an artist’s estate against an AI developer. While major music labels and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have previously initiated similar copyright infringement claims, this case could establish a significant precedent for how AI companies interact with existing musical catalogs.

The lawsuit claims that Claude was developed using copyrighted material from catalogs found across the internet. Concerns regarding the use of music and voices in AI training, as well as the potential for AI-generated content to replace human-made music, have been central to ongoing debates in the industry. As reported by The Guardian, this legal action follows broader industry trends, including Spotify's recent removal of approximately 50 million AI-generated tracks from its recommendations platform.