Sony has developed a tool for detecting plagiarism in AI-generated music

Sony Introduces a “Borrowing” Assessment System for Generated Music

In an era of rapid growth in AI‑generated content, the outdated argument that music consists of only seven notes is quickly losing relevance. Modern models do not merely imitate melodies and arrangements—they increasingly replicate even vocal styles of performers. To counter this, Sony Group has developed a tool that measures the degree of “theft” of other musical ideas.

How the New Model Works
1. Training and Generation

When creating a new composition, AI uses an enormous dataset of existing songs.

2. Work Analysis

After generation, the Sony model compares the resulting track to a database of original works:

* 30 % of the melodic foundation may match material from The Beatles;
* 10 % – from Queen’s work, etc.

3. Interaction Scenarios

- If the author agrees to cooperate: Sony connects directly to the same base model used in creating the composition and obtains more precise data on the “species” of borrowings.
- Without an agreement: The model conducts analysis independently without direct access to the source dataset.

What This Means for the Industry
* Copyright protection – as a major publisher, Sony is interested in ensuring that new AI works do not infringe existing licenses. If it is proven that a composition is “significantly” built on older works, authors may need to pay royalties.

* Attitude toward generative models – industry representatives believe that AI developers primarily aim to improve the quality of their systems rather than address intellectual property issues.

* Technical protection – Sony has also implemented mechanisms that block the use of graphic images protected by its patents in third‑party AI models.

Where the Technology Is Heading
It is not yet clear when or to what extent the system will be deployed in practice. However, it is obvious: with the growing popularity of generated content, there will be a need for tools that can objectively assess the degree of copying and enforce intellectual property rights. Sony has already taken the first step toward making such checks part of the standard workflow of a music publisher.