Music publishers sue Amazon-backed AI company over song lyrics

The lawsuit said Anthropic violates the publishers' rights through its use of lyrics from at least 500 songs ranging from the Beach Boys' God Only Knows and the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk and Beyoncé's Halo. The publishers also say that Claude illegally reproduces the lyrics by request, and in response to "a whole range of prompts that do not seek Publishers' lyrics", including "requests to write a song about a certain topic, provide chord progressions for a given musical composition, or write poetry or short fiction in the style of a certain artist or songwriter". For example, the lawsuit said that Claude will provide relevant lyrics from Don McLean's American Pie when asked to write a song about the death of the rock pioneer Buddy Holly. Representatives for Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Anthropic announced an investment of up to $4bn from Amazon in September.