Sony & Warner Sue Anthropic in Latest AI Music Lawsuit: ‘Illegally Harvested to Fuel Claude’

Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group have filed a new copyright lawsuit against Anthropic, claiming the artificial intelligence giant “illegally harvested” more than 20,000 of their songs to train its models.

The case, which follows a similar lawsuit by Universal Music Group, BMG and Round Hill, claims Anthropic stole thousands of songs to “fuel Claude,” including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Mariah Carey ‘s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” and Taylor Swift ’s “Paper Rings.” Related Licenses Versus Lawsuits: Why Suno’s Parallel Legal Strategies May Pose a ‘Conundrum’ Dale Morris, Nashville Manager Who Guided Careers of Alabama & Kenny Chesney, Dies at 89 HYBE Pledges Over $300k for Colombia Earthquake Recovery “[Publishers] bring this action to hold accountable the culprits behind one of the largest and most blatant ongoing thefts of intellectual property in history,” lawyers for the two majors write in a Friday (Aug.

28) complaint obtained by Billboard .

The new action comes after similar music lawsuits against Anthropic, an AI behemoth targeting a $2 trillion valuation — first by Universal Music Group and Concord , then more recently by BMG and by Round Hill Music .

Major music firms have also brought such litigation against Suno, the leading music-specific AI firm.

In the new case, attorneys for Sony and Warner’s publishing units say they “recognize the potential of ethical AI technology,” but that “even the most revolutionary of technologies must develop within the bounds of the law, and Anthropic’s Claude models are no different.” “These acts… inflict immense harm on music publishers and the songwriters they proudly represent,” the music companies write.

The lawsuit also names Anthropic founder and CEO Dario Amodei and co-founder Benjamin Mann as defendants.

A spokesperson for Anthropic did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday (Aug.

31).

AI firms feed millions of works into models to “train” them to create new ones.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed across the country over that process, claiming it infringes copyrights en masse.

AI companies say training is instead a legal form of copyright “fair use” that fuels innovation.

That crucial argument is largely undecided, with billions in damages and licenses hanging in the balance.

Like other recent AI cases, Friday’s lawsuit claims Anthropic not only infringed copyrights by using the songs, but also in how it acquired them in the first place.