The field of artificial intelligence music generation is discovering that the music industry's other traditions — among them, the occasional presence of people who are not who they claim to be — remain stubbornly analog.

Suno, the AI music company, has pulled an advertisement that featured the R&B singer Mary J. Blige appearing to collaborate with and respond favorably to a song generated by the company's technology. The problem, it turns out, is that Ms. Blige had not actually agreed to any such thing.

"We entered into a business deal with someone who presented themselves as Ms. Blige's official representative," a Suno spokesperson said. "As soon as we learned this was not the case, and that Ms. Blige was uncomfortable, we terminated the advertising campaign."

The company was effusive in its admiration for Ms. Blige, citing her catalog from "What's the 411?" through "Growing Pains" and praising her as someone who "hasn't stopped innovating." (One imagines Ms. Blige may have a different view of what constitutes innovation in this particular context.)

The episode arrives at an awkward moment for AI music companies, which have spent considerable energy arguing that their technology can coexist peacefully with human artists. Several major record labels have filed copyright lawsuits against Suno and its competitors, alleging that the systems were trained on copyrighted recordings without permission.

Running an advertisement that suggests a beloved artist has embraced your product — when that artist has done no such thing — would seem to complicate the message.

Suno did not say how much it had paid the person who was not, in fact, Ms. Blige's representative, nor how the company came to believe that they were. The advertising industry has, over the decades, developed certain protocols for verifying that celebrities have actually agreed to endorse products. Those protocols apparently remain a work in progress in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Suno is based.

Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Suno pulls controversial Mary J. Blige AI ad after 'representative' fraud | Campaign US"