The Recording Academy, responsible for the prestigious Grammy awards, has clarified that music incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) elements will be eligible for nominations in the 2024 award cycle. In an interview with the Associated Press on July 4, the CEO and President of the Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr., stated that music containing AI-generated elements is absolutely eligible for consideration. However, he emphasized that Grammy recognition would not be awarded solely to the AI portion of a track.
Mason explained that if an AI voice model performs lead vocals, the track could be eligible for nomination in the songwriting category but not in the performance category, and vice versa. The intention is to acknowledge the contribution of human creativity and ensure that technology enhances, embellishes, or adds to it rather than replacing it.
These clarifications follow the recent update to the Academy’s rules and eligibility criteria on June 28, which stated that works without human authorship are not eligible for any Grammy categories. The Recording Academy has been actively grappling with the inclusion or exclusion of AI in music and even organized a summit with industry leaders to discuss the future of AI in the music industry.
The increasing prevalence of AI in music production can be attributed to the rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT since November 2022. While artists like Grimes have embraced the use of AI and offered to share royalties with creators who use her voice tracks successfully, others like rapper Ice Cube have expressed concerns. Ice Cube has referred to AI as inherently demonic and threatened legal action against anyone imitating his voice on AI tracks and the platforms hosting such songs.
According to Mason, the Recording Academy foresees significant involvement of AI technology in records and songs this year. As evidence, he mentioned that Paul McCartney revealed that “the last Beatles record” utilized AI to extract John Lennon’s voice, just two days after the new Grammy rules were announced.