Bill Stiteler, a comedian not traditionally considered a musician, found fame with his A.I.-generated song 'The Puerto Rico Song' using Suno, an artificial intelligence music generator. The track has nearly 20 million Spotify streams and a licensing deal with Puerto Rico’s tourism board. Stiteler writes lyrics while Suno produces the music, calling his work 'pseudomusic.' The music industry is divided over A.I. tools like Suno, with debates over whether A.I.-created music should be eradicated or embraced if it evokes emotion.

Suno, founded in Cambridge, Mass., in 2022, has over 100 million users creating an average of 42 songs monthly. About 2 million pay up to $30 monthly for advanced features. Around a dozen A.I.-generated songs have charted on Billboard, and A.I. tracks now make up half of Deezer’s uploads. Competitors include Udio and Eleven Labs. Suno has a $5.4 billion valuation and raised roughly $1 billion from investors like Bond Capital and Union Square Ventures.

Some artists fear A.I. music, likening it to Napster-era thievery. A hacker accused Suno of scraping songs from platforms like YouTube Music and Deezer. Suno claims its models were trained on publicly available music files. CEO Mikey Shulman says the goal is creative fulfillment, while Dr. Dre embraces it as a new tool. Apple Music will soon require A.I. music to be tagged as such.