// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
Owners of Elvis music rights sue Anthropic for copyright violations
The owners of the rights to music by Elvis Presley have sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic, claiming in court that the company violated copyright law by using Elvis music to train its AI model Claude.
In a legal case filed on Friday, Authentic Brands Group - which owns the music - accused Anthropic of using 274 Elvis songs without paying for any licence.
"The Elvis Plaintiffs' iconic collective catalog contains some of the most groundbreaking, revolutionary, influential, and enduring musical compositions in human history," the case states.
A spokesperson for Anthropic told BBC News: "We disagree with the claims and intend to defend this case fully."
Authentic Brands alleges in its legal complaint that Anthropic "has built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before", according to the court filing seen by the BBC.
"The Elvis Plaintiffs are deeply protective of these iconic songs."
It argues that songs that were infringed include hits such as All Shook Up, Can't Help Falling in Love, A Little Less Conversation, Don't Be Cruel and Return To Sender.
These songs were used to create "unlicensed derivative works", Authentic Brands says.
The legal complaint asks for payments of up to $150,000 (£112,000) per infringed song, adding up to $41m.
Anthropic is also being sued by the owners of other music rights.