Anthropic seeks US court ruling that AI training on song lyrics qualifies as fair use

Anthropic has asked a US judge to rule that using millions of song lyrics to train its artificial intelligence chatbot Claude is allowed under the "fair use" rule. The company wants the judge to dismiss a copyright lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group and other music publishers, Reuters reported.

According to the report, US District Judge Eumi Lee heard arguments from both sides on Wednesday in San Jose, California, but did not make a decision.

The case could affect several other ongoing legal disputes about copyright involving AI companies and content creators.

During the hearing, Lee questioned the publishers' argument that Claude's ability to create song lyrics threatens the market for their copyrighted work.

Anthropic's lawyer, Sonal Mehta of WilmerHale, argued that training AI models on copyrighted works allows them to create new kinds of content. She said this should count as fair use under US copyright law.

However, the publishers' lawyer, Matt Oppenheim of Oppenheim + Zebrak, argued that Anthropic was using their lyrics to create competing material. He said this could hurt the work and income of human songwriters.

Oppenheim said Claude received nearly 120,000 requests to create "synthetic" lyrics over six months. He warned that large language models could fill the market with AI-generated content and increase competition for original music.

Mehta responded that there was no evidence that Claude or other large language models had reduced demand for song lyrics. She also said the publishers had not pointed to specific cases where their market had been harmed. Mehta referred to a statement from Universal Music Group itself, which said AI was "overwhelmingly a net positive" for the music industry.

The lawsuit was filed in 2023 by Universal Music Group, Concord and ABKCO. It claims that Anthropic violated the copyrights of hundreds of songs by using their lyrics to train Claude without permission. The songs include works by artists such as Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys.

Anthropic has argued that its use of the lyrics creates a new purpose for the material. The company says the lyrics help Claude understand human language and support progress in science, business and education.

The case is part of a growing legal fight over whether technology companies can use copyrighted material without permission to train generative AI systems.