The team behind the song have admitted using AI during its creation. Producer and songwriter Harrison Walker said the original vocals were actually his own, but were heavily manipulated using music-generation software Suno - sometimes called the "ChatGPT for music". Meanwhile, the second producer Waypoint, real name Jacob Donaghue, confirmed on social media that AI was used to "give our original vocal a female tone".
RBX, whose real name is Eric Dwayne Collins, is seeking a class-action status and damages and restitution from Spotify. RBX, along with other rights holders, receive payment based on how often their music is streamed on Spotify, according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in L.A. on Sunday. Spotify pays rights holders a percentage of revenue based on the total streams attributed to them compared with total volume of streams for all songs, the lawsuit said.
There is little debate about the song's origins. Sting has always said he wrote the words, chords and melody in one burst of inspiration while staying in Jamaica. His original demo is almost identical to the released version on the band's Synchronicity album. What Summers and Copeland now argue is that their contributions - in particular Summers' distinctive guitar arpeggio riff - transformed the track from a rough sketch into a timeless hit. Summers has described his part as rescuing the song from "going in the trash".
