AI Completes Beethoven’s Unfinished Symphony

Growing up in the Nile delta, Ahmed Elgammal dreamed of becoming an archaeologist or art historian. He never imagined he’d wind up in a concert hall in Bonn listening to the premier of Beethoven’s Tenth, a symphony he helped finish with AI. Hearing of Elgammal’s work, the director of a music technology institute in Salzburg asked him in early 2019 to help complete two movements of Beethoven’s Tenth, also known as his Unfinished Symphony, for a celebration of the composer’s 250th birthday.