Music publishers sue AI company Anthropic over song lyrics

Universal Music Group logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken, May 3, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) - Music publishers Universal Music, ABKCO and Concord Publishing sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in Tennessee federal court on Wednesday, accusing it of misusing an "innumerable" amount of copyrighted song lyrics to train its chatbot Claude.

The lawsuit said Anthropic violates the publishers' rights through its use of lyrics from at least 500 songs ranging from the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk" and Beyonce's "Halo."