Elvis Presley rights holders sue Suno over AI voice cloning

Elvis Presley Enterprises has sued Suno, claiming the AI firm let users clone the King's voice in one of the first major tests of Tennessee's ELVIS Act against a toolmaker.

Elvis Presley in a 1958 portrait framed over a purple-tinted collage of Jailhouse Rock promo art, a phonograph, a courthouse and vinyl grooves
Image credit
Image: MIDDERMUSIC collage based on "Elvis Presley, Modern Screen, June 1958" via Wikimedia Commons (public domain), cropped, framed and tinted. Background: "Elvis Presley promoting Jailhouse Rock" (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, public domain); "Edison phonograph and Gold Moulded records, 1909" (public domain); "Facade of Conway County Courthouse in Morrilton, AR 001" by Brandonrush (CC0); "LP Record Groove Close-Up (5248017196)" by Piano Piano!, CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), cropped and tinted; "EMI RM-1B microphone (1930s), Abbey Road Studios" by Josephenus P. Riley, CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), cropped and tinted. MIDDERMUSIC collage based on "Elvis Presley, Modern Screen, June 1958" via Wikimedia Commons (public domain), cropped, framed and tinted. Background: "Elvis Presley promoting Jailhouse Rock" (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, public domain); "Edison phonograph and Gold Moulded records, 1909" (public domain); "Facade of Conway County Courthouse in Morrilton, AR 001" by Brandonrush (CC0); "LP Record Groove Close-Up (5248017196)" by Piano Piano!, CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), cropped and tinted; "EMI RM-1B microphone (1930s), Abbey Road Studios" by Josephenus P. Riley, CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), cropped and tinted.

Elvis Presley’s rights holders have sued Suno, alleging its AI music platform lets users generate unauthorized imitations of his voice.

According to Billboard, Elvis Presley Enterprises, the Authentic Brands Group unit that controls the estate’s name, image, likeness and much of the catalog, filed suit on Friday, November 6. The complaint claims Suno violated Elvis’ likeness and voice rights by letting users generate unauthorized knockoff vocals, and it adds copyright-training claims that echo the estate’s October case against Anthropic.

“All of the humanity, history, despair, and triumph that constitutes Elvis’ identity was stolen and is stored on servers and harnessed by Suno to make massive amounts of money,” writes Richard Busch of Adams & Reese in the complaint, as quoted by Billboard.

That is the difference that matters. The Anthropic suit focused on training Claude on Elvis songs. This one goes after the voice itself, leaning on Tennessee’s ELVIS Act (Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security), a 2024 law Billboard says lets plaintiffs sue toolmakers who enable voice and image cloning.

ABG spokeswoman Lark-Marie Antón told Billboard on Saturday: “The name, image, likeness, and music of Elvis Presley are among the most valuable intellectual property assets in the world. We protect those rights vigorously.” Billboard reported that a Suno spokeswoman did not immediately respond to its Saturday request for comment.

Suno has argued elsewhere that its models block specific artist names and real-voice mimics. The Elvis complaint calls that “unequivocally false,” Billboard reports, citing video evidence of Elvis-like outputs and claims that entering Elvis’ name in Create still generates unauthorized likeness results.

Living artists are already in this fight. Billboard notes Suno’s lawyers made similar genre-shorthand arguments in the proposed class action brought by Jason Isbell and other musicians over their likeness rights.

The same Adams & Reese team also filed an Eight Mile Style / Eminem catalog training case against Suno on Friday. Warner Music Group announced a settlement with Suno in November 2025. Billboard reports that litigation with Universal and Sony continues, alongside cases brought by Round Hill and Reservoir.

If the alleged voice imitation is established, the dispute goes beyond training data to the commercial use of a recognizable vocal identity.

The ELVIS Act was written for exactly this kind of claim. Whether a court will stretch it that far is the untested question Billboard flags, and the industry will be watching.