Some songs are so famous that almost everyone can hum them. That familiarity is now at the centre of a lawsuit. On Friday, Authentic Brands Group, the licensing company that controls both Elvis Presley's music and his likeness, sued the AI company Anthropic. It alleges that 274 of his songs, including "Can't Help Falling in Love", "All Shook Up" and "A Little Less Conversation", were used to train the chatbot Claude without permission.

The money at stake is large. The plaintiffs are seeking $150,000 for each song allegedly infringed, which comes to roughly $41m. But the significance lies elsewhere. Record labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner, and the industry body RIAA, have already brought similar claims against AI firms.

This case, first reported by Billboard, is among the first major actions brought directly by an artist's estate, and a ruling could shape how AI developers are allowed to use existing catalogues. The complaint goes beyond training. It argues that Claude has produced infringing output of "virtually every song from every catalog available on the internet". It also says that Anthropic added guardrails only after being caught, and that it knew they were ineffective.