Jason Isbell is among a group of plaintiffs pursuing a fresh federal complaint against the AI music-creation platform Suno.
The Grammy-winning artist behind “Cover Me Up” is leading the charge that the company allows users to craft songs that draw on musicians’ identities without their consent.
The suit, filed in the United States District Court in Massachusetts, is brought by a coalition that includes Isbell, Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery, Texas blues musician Guy Forsyth, and Florida-based saxophonist Eduardo Calle.
It likens Suno to the Borg, the Star Trek villains famed for their “resistance is futile” approach to absorbing others into their hive mind.
“That is what Suno does when users type an artist’s name into its models to try and produce sonic variants of their work,” lawyer Alan D Rose wrote in the plaintiffs’ complaint.
“It encoded musicians’ identities into its AI model to create its commercial product without consent, and now exploits those identities by publicly using musicians’ names to Suno’s considerable commercial benefit.”
The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, statutory and punitive damages, and for Suno to be prevented from capturing and monetising artists’ identities.
“A musician’s identity is their property, but Suno took it without consent,” Rose concluded. “This lawsuit is how these musicians resist the premise that resistance is futile.”
