Elvis Presley Rights Owners Sue Suno Over AI Voice Cloning: ‘Elvis’ Identity Was Stolen’

A voz lendária do cantor está no centro de uma ação judicial de ponta que busca responsabilizar legalmente a empresa de IA por permitir que usuários criem vocais falsificados.

The owners of Elvis Presley’s intellectual property are suing Suno in a new lawsuit that claims the artificial intelligence music company violated the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s likeness rights by stealing his voice.

Mas também inclui acusações inéditas do ponto de vista jurídico de que a Suno violou a lei ao permitir que usuários clonassem a voz “inconfundível e icônica” de Presley.

The new lawsuit marks one of the first major cases under a new Tennessee law, coincidentally called the ELVIS Act, that was recently enacted to address problems caused by AI.

The first-in-the-nation statute was touted as a weapon against people who create illegal deepfakes, but it also allows for lawsuits against tech firms that enable such voice and image cloning in the first place.

Juntando-se ao caso Anthropic, as ações contra Elvis representam, de forma indiscutível, a ação mais significativa ajuizada em nome de um músico individual sobre IA — neste caso, o artista gravador mais famoso de todos os tempos, a seu ver.

Friday’s lawsuit was filed by Elvis Presley Enterprises, a unit of the licensing giant Authentic Brands Group that controls the intellectual property tied to Elvis, including much of his song catalog and the rights to his name, image and likeness.

In a statement to Billboard on Saturday, ABG spokeswoman Lark-Marie Antón said the new lawsuit and its evidence “speak for themselves.”.

Em comunicado de sábado, respondendo à ação judicial, uma porta-voz da Suno disse à Billboard: “A Suno existe para ajudar as pessoas a criar música nova e original, não para se aproveitar do nome ou da imagem de ninguém, e proibimos qualquer uso não autorizado do trabalho de um artista.”.

To protect against this, we do not allow prompts for specific artists’ names and songs and work with third party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse.

We are always working to strengthen our guardrails and we will continue to add new safeguards that protect artists and our users.”.

The looming battle with Suno will raise untested legal questions about the extent to which AI companies can be sued for allegedly ripping off a musical artist’s identity.

O uso da IA para imitar convincentemente pessoas reais tem sido uma das aplicações mais controversas da tecnologia em ascensão, e não há lugar onde isso seja menos evidente do que em uma indústria largamente construída sobre vozes de canto famosas.

Suno has argued in other lawsuits that its current models do not allow users to include the names of specific artists in prompts, nor produce outputs that mimic specific real voices.

But in Friday’s complaint, the Elvis owners say those claims are “unequivocally false.” They included links to videos capturing the use of Suno’s platform to play songs that sound remarkably similar to Presley.

The new case will test the power and limits of the ELVIS (Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security) Act, a law enacted in 2024 in Presley’s adopted home state to make it easier for musicians to bring such cases.

As leis existentes normalmente se aplicavam apenas à exploração comercial da imagem de alguém, como um anúncio não autorizado; o novo estatuto removeu essas restrições.

ELVIS also specifically imposed liability on companies that provide tools allowing for unauthorized use of a person’s likeness.

Suno’s lawyers have argued such claims won’t hold up in court. In an earlier likeness case filed by Jason Isbell and other artists, the AI firm’s lawyers argued it merely uses artist names as “shorthand for the genre they perform in” and does not allow for direct theft of their voices.

But the new lawsuit says that as recently as last month, Suno generated an Elvis clone based simply on lyrics that included his name.

E, assim como no caso anterior, a nova ação judicial afirma que a Suno roubou essas músicas para substituir artistas humanos.

Os casos do Elvis e do Eminem aumentam os desafios legais em curso para a Suno. A empresa foi processada pela primeira vez em 2024 por todas as três grandes gravadoras sobre treinamento de IA.

Embora tenha se reconciliado com a Warner Music Group no ano passado e tenha prometido se associar à indústria musical, ainda está litigando com a UMG e a Sony Music — que não demonstraram interesse em fechar um acordo.

It has also faced new cases in recent months from music publishers Round Hill Music and Reservoir, as well as the Isbell case over likenesses.

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