“We cannot allow this to become the new normal”
By Liberty Dunworth 1st December 2025
Jorja Smith. Credit: Romany Francesca
Jorja Smith’s record label has hit out at a song made using AI, which it alleges “cloned” her voice.
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The song in question is called ‘I Run’, and was released by British dance act Haven. It featured vocals from a female singer, who is uncredited, but said by some to have noticeable similarities to the BRIT Award winner.
AdvertisementIt went viral on TikTok in October and was looking likely to go to the charts in both the US and the UK. Before this could happen, however, it was taken down by streaming platforms over alleged copyright infringement and impersonation of another artist.
Now, the record label FAMM, which represents Smith, is seeking compensation for the song. It alleges that ‘I Run’ was made using artificial intelligence that was trained using the singer’s discography.
The track has since been released by Haven featuring new vocals, but the record label is still seeking compensation, claiming that both variants “infringe on Jorja’s rights and unfairly take advantage of the work of all the songwriters with whom she collaborates” (as per BBC).
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“This isn’t just about Jorja. It’s bigger than one artist or one song,” FAMM posted on Instagram. “We cannot allow this to become the new normal.”
RecommendedThe label also said it was calling out the song as it has “a duty to speak up” about how AI is becoming more prominent in the music industry at an “alarming rate and substantially outpacing regulation”.
“AI material should be clearly labelled as such so that the public may choose whether they consume AI material or not,” FAMM continued, outlining the changes it wants to see enforced and hopes for artists like Smith to get more recognition.
“If we are successful in establishing that AI helped to write the lyrics and melody in ‘I Run’ and are awarded a share of the song, we would seek to allocate each of Jorja’s co-writers with a pro-rata share,” it went on.
“This allocation would be based on the [percentage] of Jorja’s catalogue that they have contributed to, as, ultimately, if AI helped to write ‘I Run’, it would have been trained on Jorja’s catalogue of songs.”
AdvertisementIt is worth noting that the people behind ‘I Run’ have admitted that AI was used in its creation, but said the original vocals were those of the song’s producer and songwriter, Harrison Walker.
Another producer, called Waypoint (real name Jacob Donaghue), said the AI software Suno was used to put the “female tone” on the original vocals.
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Reported by Billboard, both Walker and Donaghue maintain that they wrote and produced the song, and outline that it “shouldn’t be any secret” that AI was used to “transform” the original vocals submitted by the former.
“As a songwriter and producer I enjoy using new tools, techniques and staying on the cutting edge of what’s happening,” Walker said. “To set the record straight, the artists behind Haven. are real and human, and all we want to do is make great music for other humans.”
BBC News reports that a spokesperson for Suno has admitted that the software was trained using copyrighted material from artists, but did so as it was legal under the “fair use” laws.
Those laws allow for copyrighted material to be used for purposes including research and news reporting. At the time of writing, it isn’t clear whether Smith’s music was used by Suno for training purposes.
The use of AI in music has been a topic that has been widely debated over the past couple of years, and is criticised by many artists. In February this year, Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox and over 1,000 artists released a silent album in protest against AI being used in music and changes to copyright AI laws planned by the UK government.
At the end of 2024, a study shared the stark warning that people working in music were likely to lose a quarter of their income to AI over the next four years, and, early this year, streaming platform Deezer stated that around 10,000 AI-generated tracks were submitted to the platform daily – making up around 10 per cent of all its music uploads.
Today we’re releasing the vinyl of Is This What We Want?, the silent album from 1000+ musicians protesting the UK government’s plans on AI & copyright.
Incredibly grateful to Paul McCartney for providing a new (silent) bonus track. And to the many UK musicians involved in the… pic.twitter.com/tlzVYLCS1n
— Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex) November 17, 2025
In May, McCartney, Elton John, Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Florence Welch, Kate Bush and Robbie Williams were among the 400 artists to sign a letter, asking for Keir Starmer to back proposals that would protect copyrighted artistic works from AI infringement.
Other artists also pushed for the PM to protect the work of creatives ahead of a UK-US tech deal laid out during Donald Trump’s visit in September.
In that same month, Spotify confirmed that it was cracking down on AI by removing 75million “spammy tracks” and targeting impersonators. More recent figures showed that 97 per cent of people “can’t tell the difference” between real and AI music.
Earlier this year, an AI-generated ‘band’ called The Velvet Sundown made headlines after gaining around 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners – despite existing for less than a month. A ‘spokesperson’ for the viral act later admitted that he was running a hoax aimed at “the media”.
More recently, AI-generated artist Xania Monet made headlines for signing a multimillion-dollar record deal and becoming the first AI artist to chart on the US Billboard rankings.
