Anthropic faces legal action over alleged use of elvis presley's music in AI training

Anthropic is facing a lawsuit alleging that its AI model, Claude, was trained on Elvis Presley's music without permission. The lawsuit, filed by owners of Presley's intellectual property rights, claims that Anthropic used 274 of the rock icon's songs, including hits like 'Can't Help Falling in Love' and 'Don't Be Cruel,' to train its models. The complaint argues that Claude's generated content closely mimics Presley's discography, crossing into copyright infringement. Anthropic has denied the allegations, stating it intends to defend the case fully. The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction and damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work, potentially totaling $41.1 million. This lawsuit adds to a series of legal challenges against Anthropic, including a $1.5 billion class-action settlement in July and previous lawsuits from Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Group. The latest filing highlights concerns over the scale of alleged copyright violations, with the complaint noting that users could request Claude to recreate and update Presley's songs, often with strikingly similar structures and lyrics.