The generative AI music space is heating up, with tech giants like Google and Meta already making waves in how songs are created. Now, OpenAI is stepping into the fray, aiming to compose its own symphony in this competitive landscape. According to reporting by The Information, OpenAI is developing a generative music tool that can create music from text or audio prompts. While the company hasn’t officially announced the tool or its release strategy, sources indicate that this initiative represents a significant shift toward creative audio applications for the tech giant.
OpenAI is reportedly collaborating with students from New York’s prestigious Juilliard School, tasking them with annotating sheet music to refine the model’s training data. This collaboration suggests a broader ambition to blend professional-level musicality with machine learning. However, the specifics of the project remain scarce, leaving much to the imagination.
This move places OpenAI squarely in the crosshairs of a rapidly evolving and increasingly contentious space. Google has been testing its MusicLM model, while Meta released open-source tools for music generation under the Audiocraft moniker earlier this year. Perhaps the most visible—and controversial—player in this arena is Suno, a platform that allows users to create full songs from simple text prompts.
OpenAI is no stranger to generative music. In 2020, the company released Jukebox, a neural net capable of creating raw audio music complete with vocals. Though experimental and ultimately discontinued, Jukebox hinted at the deeper AI-audio ambitions now taking shape under CEO Sam Altman.
Yet, with great scale comes scrutiny. OpenAI has already faced copyright litigation, including lawsuits over alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted content for training language models. The company has secured some licensing deals, notably with Shutterstock, which includes access to its music catalog. However, the lack of clear details around how OpenAI is sourcing audio data for training its music tool is likely to raise familiar legal challenges.
The intensifying competition in the generative AI music space is reshaping how songs are created and consumed. As OpenAI enters the fray, the sector is poised for further innovation and, inevitably, more legal and ethical scrutiny. The race is on, and the soundtrack is still being written.
