David Cope

David Howell Cope (May 17, 1941 – May 4, 2025) was an American author, composer, scientist and Dickerson Professor of Music at UC Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involved artificial intelligence and music; he wrote programs and algorithms that can analyze existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. He taught the groundbreaking summer workshop in Workshop in Algorithmic Computer Music (WACM) that was open to the public as well as a general education course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Music for enrolled UCSC students. Cope was also co-founder and CTO Emeritus of Recombinant Inc., a music technology company. He died of congestive heart failure on May 4, 2025, at the age of 83. Quotes Creativity does not originate from a vacuum. It made me appreciate what humans were capable of. Every limitation we place on the potential of machines is a limitation we indirectly place on ourselves. I see no reason why computer-created music cannot move us to tears, find roots in our cultures...as much as any music composed in more traditional ways. As heretical to some as these thoughts may be, I believe them profoundly. I felt strongly that the work was worth something,” “I don’t worry about what people think of me.” “I remember thinking, ‘I’m not a white person and I’m not an Indian. What am I? Even at that young age, it somehow freed me from following cultural stereotypes. I was me, and it felt very good. Realizing that I didn’t belong has probably fostered my lifelong ability to not be concerned about those who attack me for being independent,” “I follow my own calling.” The works have delighted, angered, provoked, and terrified those who have heard them. I do not believe that the composers and audiences of the future will have the same reactions. Ultimately, the computer is just a tool with which we extend our minds. External link Category: dead people Category:Scientists from the United States Category:Authors from the United States