The lawsuit alleges the AI tech firm infringed on 274 copyrighted songs to train its flagship model, Claude.
The estate and rights holders of Elvis Presley have initiated legal proceedings against artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, accusing the tech company of using hundreds of the late musician's copyrighted compositions without authorization to train its AI models.
The lawsuit, filed on October 23, claims Anthropic infringed on 274 songs from Presley's catalog, including landmark tracks such as "Can't Help Falling in Love," "Don't Be Cruel," and "A Little Less Conversation."
The action was brought by a division of Authentic Brands Group—the licensing company controlling the majority of Presley’s intellectual property, trademarks, and catalog rights—alongside co-plaintiff entities.
Lead attorney Richard Busch stated in the filing that the plaintiffs aim to enforce exclusive rights against a company whose operational model relies on large-scale copyright infringement. Busch, who previously represented Marvin Gaye's estate in the landmark "Blurred Lines" copyright suit, noted that the estate remains intent on protecting the legacy of the catalog.
The dispute centers on the practice of data ingestion, in which AI developers process vast volumes of existing copyrighted material to train generative models. While technology firms routinely argue that dataset training falls under the fair use doctrine of copyright law, the issue remains unresolved in courts, with numerous pending cases across the creative and publishing sectors.
Although major record labels—including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group—have previously pursued litigation against AI music generators such as Suno, the action by Presley's estate marks one of the most high-profile individual artist catalog suits to date.
The suit alleges that Anthropic illegally ingested Presley’s compositions to construct systems capable of generating unlicensed derivative output.
Anthropic has not issued a formal statement regarding the filing.