A start-up producing “deepfake” songs that imitate the voices of musicians such as Jewish stars Amy Winehouse and Drake is facing legal action, the Times has reported.

Voicify, which operates online as Jammable, has received a legal letter accusing it of infringing copyright and told it could avoid litigation by accepting the allegations and agreeing to stop generating the songs, said UK trade association BPI, which initiated the legal challenge.

Voicify was set up by Aditya Bansal, a computer science student at Southampton University. The company did not respond to a request for comment submitted by the Times.

Jammable reportedly creates fake songs by combining the voices of well-known artists and its users to form new compositions.

The website allows users to upload their own singing and then convert the recording into an audio track that sounds similar to songs by a range of musicians.

BPI is concerned the technology that converts the users’ voices breaches copyright laws as it may have been created by using artists’ original work. Jammable users pay monthly fees of between £1.99 and £89.99.

Gee Davy, head of policy and legal affairs at the Association of Independent Music, told the Times: “The use of music without consent undermines artists’ ability to make a living from their music and has no place in the creative collaboration between music and AI, and it seems this has been the case with Jammable. As always, it is the smaller artists and creatives and those from diverse communities that suffer the most from unethical and illegal activities.”