The owners of Elvis Presley's catalog have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against artificial intelligence firm Anthropic. According to Billboard, the legal complaint was submitted on Friday by Authentic Brands Group, the licensing company that controls the late singer's music catalog and likeness.
The lawsuit alleges that Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI platform, infringed on the intellectual property rights of 274 Elvis Presley songs by using them to train its models without permission. The action stands out as one of the first major legal challenges brought by an artist's estate against a prominent AI developer, following previous industry lawsuits from major record labels including Universal and Warner Bros., alongside the RIAA.
Lead attorney Richard Busch stated in the filing that the plaintiffs are seeking to enforce their exclusive rights against a defendant accused of building its business model around widespread copyright infringement. Busch noted that the plaintiffs remain deeply protective of the iconic catalog.
The litigation highlights mounting tensions between intellectual property holders and AI technology companies over the unauthorized use of recorded catalogs to train machine learning systems.