Grammy’s CEO on new AI guidelines: Music containing AI-created elements is eligible. ‘Period of time.’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Last month, the Recording Academy announced a series of changes to the Grammy Awards to better reflect an evolving music industry. Among those new guidelines, protocols with technological advances in machine learning made headlines: “Only human creators” could win the music industry’s top honor in a decision targeting the use of artificial intelligence in popular music.
“A work that does not contain human authorship does not qualify in any category,” the rules read in part.
As the music industry continues to embrace this new technology, so will the Grammys, says Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr.
“Here’s the super-easy main explanation: AI, or music that contains AI-created elements, is absolutely eligible for entry and for consideration for Grammy nomination. Period,” Mason told The Associated Press. “What’s not going to happen is we don’t give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the AI part.”
For example, if an AI or voice modeling program performs a song’s lead vocal, the track would qualify for a songwriting category, but not a performance category, because “what is being performed is not a human creation,” he explains. “Conversely, if a song was sung by a real human being in the studio, and they did all the performance, but AI wrote the lyrics or song, the song wouldn’t qualify for a composition or songwriting category.”
“As long as the human contributes a more than de minimis amount, which means a meaningful way to us, they always come and will be eligible for a nomination or a win,” he continued. “We don’t want technology to replace human creativity. We want to ensure that technology enhances, embellishes or adds to human creativity. That is why we have taken this particular stance in this price cycle.”
The Recording Academy has long considered establishing rules regarding AI, following the popularity of new songs co-created with AI technology: David Guetta’s “Emin-AI-em”the AI compositions of TikTok user @ghostwriter977Grimes’ voice modeling AI software.
To establish their AI guidelines, the Recording Academy conducted extensive research, including holding tech summits.
“I met with the copyright office. We’ve talked about the future and what that looks like at the federal level and at the legislative level,” Mason said, adding that AI conversations “really came to a head in the last six months.”
The new Grammy AI protocols were announced three days after Paul McCartney shared it “the last Beatles record” was composed using artificial intelligence to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo. Without knowing the extent of the technology, Mason couldn’t confirm or deny whether the song would qualify for a Grammy nomination.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “But I imagine, based on the early descriptions I’ve heard, there were components of the creation that would absolutely qualify.”
So, can Grammy viewers expect work that’s at least partially made with AI to be nominated for an award as early as next year?
It is impossible to predict what will be submitted. But as Mason confirms, “People are using the technology. I imagine it will be used on a lot of records and a lot of songs this year, so we’ll see if some of them get nominated or not, but I’m sure some will be submitted. ”
The 2024 Grammy Awards will return to the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles Sunday February 4, 2024broadcast live on CBS and streamed live on Paramount+.
