The company that owns Elvis Presley's music says Anthropic used 274 of his songs to train its AI without permission, and wants about $41 million.
The owners of Elvis Presley's music are suing the AI company Anthropic. They say it used his songs to train its AI model, Claude, without permission. The suit was filed on Friday and first reported by Billboard. It names 274 songs, including Can't Help Falling in Love, All Shook Up and A Little Less Conversation.
The plaintiff is Authentic Brands Group, a licensing organization that owns both Presley's music and his likeness. It accuses Anthropic of infringing the rights to those 274 songs. It wants $150,000 for each song, which comes to about $41 million.
Lead attorney Richard Busch wrote that Anthropic built its business on copyright infringement "at a scale never seen before." The suit also claims Claude has produced infringing output of copyrighted material from virtually every song catalog available on the internet.
The suit says Anthropic added guardrails, meaning limits meant to stop copied music from appearing in its answers, only after being caught. It also says Anthropic knew those guardrails did not work well. The plaintiffs argue this shows the company knowingly and willfully infringed. These are claims in a lawsuit, not findings by a court.
AI firms have already faced copyright claims from the Recording Industry Association of America and from labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner Records. This case is one of the first major ones brought directly by an artist's estate. The result could set a wider precedent for how AI companies may use existing music catalogs.
Musicians have repeatedly voiced worry that their music and voices are used without consent. Some fear AI-made "slop" music could replace human-made songs. Spotify said last week it removed about 50 million songs it considered AI slop from its recommendations over the past year.
For everyday users and businesses, nothing changes today. But the outcome could help decide whether AI companies must pay for the music they learn from, and that may shape the AI tools people use.
A court may soon help decide whether AI companies must pay for the songs they learn from, and the answer could shape the tools you use.
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