Should Music Created by Artificial Intelligence Be Protected by Copyright? - Office of Copyright

"I have songwriting credits…even though I don't know how to write a song." 1 The speaker of this statement is not a musician and has no musical training. He helped create an app called Endel, which is self-described as "a cross-platform audio ecosystem." 2 Endel is part of a larger part of the current hot debate over works of art being "created" by computers using programs employing "artificially intelligent" modes of computer learning, or AI for short. "Dmitry Evgrafov, Endel's composer and head of sound design, says all 600 tracks were made'with a click of a button.' There was minimal human involvement outside of chopping up the audio and mastering it for streaming. Endel even hired a third-party company to write the track titles." 3 What makes this notable is that Endel has a record deal with Warner Bros. Music. 4 "Five Endel albums have already been released, and 15 more are coming this year -- all of which will be generated by code. In the future, Endel will be able to make infinite ambient tracks." 5 But didn't the Endel engineers create the software in question?