Music generation startup Suno has officially confirmed that its AI models were trained using copyrighted songs. In a court filing submitted this Thursday, the company argued that this practice is protected under the fair-use doctrine, marking a pivotal moment in the ongoing legal battle initiated by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
A Strategic Legal Admission
The RIAA launched its lawsuit against Suno and Udio on June 24, alleging systemic unauthorized use of protected music to train generative AI systems. While investors had previously hinted at the lack of explicit licensing agreements, the recent filing provides the most direct acknowledgment to date: “It is no secret that the tens of millions of recordings that Suno’s model was trained on presumably included recordings whose rights are owned by the Plaintiffs in this case.”
The Defense: Learning vs. Infringement
Suno CEO and co-founder Mikey Shulman defended the company’s methodology in a blog post released concurrently with the legal filing. Shulman maintains that the model ingests medium- and high-quality music found on the “open internet,” asserting that this process is fundamentally similar to a human musician studying a genre to create original compositions.
“Learning is not infringing. It never has been, and it is not now,” Shulman stated, framing the AI training process as an educational act rather than a violation of intellectual property rights.
RIAA Fires Back Against “Industrial Scale Infringement”
The RIAA responded sharply to the admission, characterizing Suno’s stance as a desperate attempt to justify theft. “It’s a major concession of facts they spent months trying to hide and acknowledged only when forced by a lawsuit,” the RIAA remarked. The organization emphasized that the startup’s actions do not constitute fair use, noting that the technology is designed to extract the core value of an artist’s life work to compete directly with the original creators.
The RIAA further warned that if this model of generative AI persists, it risks destroying the economic viability of the music industry, leaving fans without the ability to support their favorite artists.
Setting a Precedent for AI
The outcome of this litigation will likely serve as a landmark ruling for the AI industry. As the case progresses, the court’s interpretation of “fair use” in the context of machine learning will influence how developers source data for future models, potentially reshaping the legal landscape for creative technology startups globally.