Sony and Universal Music Group sue Suno again over AI training

In short: Sony Music and Universal Music Group have filed another lawsuit against Suno, claiming its latest AI music model still breaks copyright rules.

What happened

Sony and Universal Music Group (UMG) filed a new complaint against Suno, the company behind a tool that can generate songs with AI. This is not their first legal fight with Suno.

The music labels say Suno’s new “v6” model still infringes their copyrights. Their main claim is that v6 was trained using songs and vocals created by users on Suno’s older models. The labels say those older models were trained on unlicensed music taken from places like YouTube, meaning the newer model is still benefiting from copied material.

In the complaint, Sony and UMG call this “model laundering.” They argue that training a new model on outputs from an earlier infringing model does not fix the original problem. It is more like making a photocopy of a photocopy and then saying it is a new document.

Suno has previously said v6 was “trained from the ground up” using a new set of data, including “user data.” Suno later confirmed that this includes user “creations,” but did not give more detail, according to reporting cited by The Verge. Sony also alleges Suno used a method called “distillation” (teaching a newer system to imitate an older one), which the labels say would carry over the same issues.

Why it matters

This case could affect what AI music tools can legally learn from. If courts agree with the labels, AI companies may have to prove their systems truly start from scratch, or pay for licenses, before releasing updated models.

Source: The Verge AI