The world's biggest record labels are suing two artificial intelligence startups, taking an aggressive stance to protect their intellectual property against technology that makes it easy for people to generate music based on existing songs. The Recording Industry Association of America said it filed twin lawsuits Monday against Suno AI and Uncharted Labs Inc., the developer of Udio AI, on behalf of Universal Music Group NV, Warner Music Group Corp. and Sony Music Entertainment. The RIAA, a trade group for record labels, is seeking damages of as much as 150,000 "per work infringed." That could amount to potentially billions of dollars. "The music community has embraced AI, and we are already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers to build sustainable AI tools centered on human creativity that put artists and songwriters in charge," Mitch Glazier, chief executive officer of the RIAA, said in a statement.

Major music labels are taking on AI startups that they believe trained on their songs without paying. The filings against the AI companies reportedly demand injunctions against future use and damages of up to 150,000 per infringed work. The suits appear aimed at establishing licensed training as the only acceptable industry framework for AI moving forward -- while instilling fear in companies that train their models without consent. Suno AI and Udio AI (Uncharted Labs run the latter) are startups with software that generates music based on text inputs. The former is a partner of Microsoft for its CoPilot music generation tool.