The Grammys have shared an update related to the use of artificial intelligence and songwriting. The adjustment comes after last month’s ceremony guidelines were changed to adhere to technological advancement, although; “a work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category,” outlined Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr., touching on the eligibility rules.
“Here’s the super easy, headline statement: A.I., or music that contains A.I.-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 are not going to give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the A.I. portion.”
Mason added, “If an A.I. or voice modeling program performs the lead vocal on a song, the track would be eligible in a songwriting category, for example, but not a performance category, because “what is performing is not human creation.” Going off his prior sentiment, he continued: “Conversely, if a song was sung by an actual human in the studio, and they did all the performing, but A.I. wrote the lyric or the track, the song would not be eligible in a composition or a songwriting category.”
Mason’s comments in relation to the changes went on to include, “As long as the human is contributing in a more than de minimis amount, which to us means a meaningful way, they are and will always be considered for a nomination or a win. 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.”
In order to adhere to the times and embrace technological advancements, Mason explained: “I’ve met with the copyright office. We’ve talked about the future and what that looks like on a federal level and the legislative level.” Notably, the announcement of the Grammys’ new A.I. protocol landed just days after Paul McCartney spoke with BBC, where he shared intriguing news about the role of artificial intelligence in the music industry. He disclosed that A.I. technology had been employed to “extricate” John Lennon’s voice from an old demo, paving the way for the release of one last Beatles song expected to debut this year. Read more.