Recording Academy CEO and President, Harvey Mason Jr, announced that the Grammy Awards will be accepting music with AI-generated elements, as long as there is “meaningful human contribution.”
Last month the Academy had announced that “only human creators” would be eligible for a Grammy Award nomination; but this statement has since been clarified. Mason broke it down for reporters, explaining that “AI, or music that contains AI-created elements, is absolutely eligible for entry and consideration for a Grammy nomination. Period. We are not going to give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the AI portion. As long as the human is contributing in a more than de minims amount, which to us means a meaningful way, they are and will always be considered for a nomination or a win.”
Mason has explained the constraints of the new rule and told reporters that any song created with AI would only be submitted for the categories in which human contributions exceed AI contributions. His example for this situation included song with an AI program singing lead vocals but the lyrics being written by a person. In this case, the song would only be nominated for the songwriting category of the Grammy Awards.
How exactly it will be determined whether or not the amount of human contributions exceed AI contributions is yet to be seen. But, with the rise of AI and AI-generated music becoming nearly inevitable, it doesn’t seem surprising that the Recording Academy would feel some pressures to adapt along with the industry.
Mason continued his explanation of the rule adaptations, telling reporters that “We don’t want to see technology replace human creativity. We want to make sure technology is enhancing, embellishing, or additive to human creativity. So that’s why we took this particular stand in this award cycle.”
With the addition of three new awards plus new regulations on what can be nominated, the upcoming Grammy Awards won’t be one to miss. The next Grammy Awards will take place in Los Angeles next February.