AI Has a New Enemy: Elvis

Elvis Presley is going after artificial intelligence. The company that controls much of the late legend's intellectual property is suing Anthropic, accusing it of using the lyrics to 274 Elvis songs without permission to train its Claude models, reports Billboard. The complaint from licensing giant Authentic Brands Group says that hits like "All Shook Up," "Don't Be Cruel," and "Can't Help Falling in Love" were used throughout "the entire development" of Claude and that the chatbot still generates songs that are lightly adapted versions of Presley originals.

"As we say in the lawsuit, the Elvis Plaintiffs are guardians of, and highly protective of, Elvis's songs, which are some of the most iconic of all time," said attorney Richard Busch in a statement, per NBC News. The plaintiffs seek $41.1 million in damages, a permanent injunction, and the destruction of any unauthorized copies. Anthropic says it disputes the claims and will "defend this case fully." The case mirrors previous copyright litigation from major labels against song-generator Suno and other AI companies, with many of those cases still pending.