We know that AI giant OpenAI is interested in music. Witness its ongoing partnership with Spotify, which started with\u00a0a collaboration on the latter\u2019s AI \u2018DJ\u2019 feature<\/a>, and recently extended into\u00a0a full ChatGPT integration<\/a>\u00a0for people to discover music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Readers with longer memories may also remember OpenAI\u2019s development of two GenAI music models a few years ago:\u00a0MuseNet in 2019<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jukebox in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was in the days before AI training and copyright was a hot topic. A good thing for OpenAI, given MuseNet\u2019s ability to \u201ccombine styles from country to Mozart to the Beatles\u201d, and its decision to showcase Jukebox with deepfake samples \u201cin the style\u201d of Elvis Presley, Katy Perry and Frank Sinatra among other artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n You\u2019d be foolish to take that approach in 2025, clearly. But OpenAI appears to be doing something else. Tech site The Information\u00a0broke the news<\/a>\u00a0of OpenAI launching a new AI music project, and while its article is paywalled,\u00a0Engadget reported on some of the details<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project is exploring a tool that makes music in response to text and audio prompts, with students from New York performing arts conservatory The Juilliard School annotating music scores to help train the new model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe company envisions something that could be used to generate guitar accompaniment for a vocal track, for example, or to add music to videos,\u201d noted Engadget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Ears will be pricking up within the legal departments of music publishers at the mention of annotated scores, although OpenAI could start by focusing on out-of-copyright works. But if it wants its new model to be good, licensing a wider range of works (and ultimately recordings too) would be the logical next step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent Financial Times report<\/a>\u00a0listing AI companies currently in licensing talks with major labels did not mention OpenAI, however. As its plans progress, the company can expect attention to be repaid to\u00a0a 2023 appearance before a US Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee by its CEO Sam Altman<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was grilled then about Jukebox\u2019s deepfakes \u2013\u00a0\u201cThat was a research release\u2026 not something which gets much attention or usage. It was put out to show that something\u2019s possible\u201d \u2013\u00a0and about OpenAI\u2019s approach to musicians and copyright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u201cWe think that creators deserve control over how their creations are used, and what happens beyond the point of them releasing it into the world,\u201d said Altman then. \u201cWe think that content creators, content owners, need to benefit from this technology\u2026 content owners, likenesses: people totally deserve control over how that\u2019s used, and to benefit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2025, OpenAI\u2019s record of giving content owners and celebrities control over their likenesses is\u2026 let\u2019s just say it\u2019s a work in progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the release of its latest GenAI video model Sora and an app to create clips with it spurred a flood of deepfakes and videos featuring copyrighted characters, the company\u00a0quickly had to promise more control<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and future revenues-sharing \u2013\u00a0under pressure from rightsholders and talent agencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n