Jason Isbell is one of several litigants in a new federal lawsuit against the AI music generator Suno.
The Grammy-winning Cover Me Up singer is leading the argument that the company has allowed users to produce tracks based on musicians’ identities without their consent.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Massachusetts, comes from a group that includes Isbell, Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery, Texas blues musician Guy Forsyth and Florida-based saxophonist Eduardo Calle.
It compares Suno to the Borg, the Star Trek villains known for their “resistance is futile” method of absorbing their victims 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 complaint for the plaintiffs.
“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.”
