Another example: early in his career, Scriabin sounded a lot like Chopin. Later in his career, though, his music turned into something truly original and one-of-a-kind. It seems necessary to start out imitating your idols, but at some point true artists aren't content with imitating and have to find their own voice.

Actually, didn't hear about this, but makes sense, Brahms clearly builds off of Beethoven.

But, have had heard the same thing that was said in the page you linked, that one of the reasons Brahms took so long in his life before he wrote a symphony is that he had to compete with Beethoven, and didn't feel it was ready until much older. Yeah, what an immense weight he must have felt to have to follow up what Beethoven had done!

Agreed... and am realizing, especially with themes/melodies, sometimes it's not always easy to modify them enough to the point that it's unrecognizable, but even then, you could be said to quoting their theme - although, am of course not talking about quoting popular music melodies, no one wants a lawsuit:)

Interesting. There is of course be a line between condoned use and unwanted stealing. And now that you’re mentioning it, think there is a higher tolerance for humans using a person‘s ideas versus AI. Think this is not only because a human is a real person and typically is also associated with music who has studied it to some degree, but also because when AI uses your ideas, you’re basically giving free access to them for any of the millions of users of the model. Hmm, Useful to think about