Music containing AI-generated elements could win a Grammy as long as a human contributes in ‘a meaningful way,’ Recording Academy CEO says

• Music containing AI-generated elements is eligible to win a Grammy, the Recording Academy CEO said.
• While the award will only be given to “human creators,” those artists can use AI in their work.
• New rules last month prohibit work that contains “no human authorship.”

In order to win a Grammy, you need a great song, excellent distribution — and a pulse.

New rules announced last month by the Recording Academy specify that the music industry’s highest award is for “only human creators,” and flatly rejected any works that contain “no human authorship.”

But that doesn’t mean a human can’t use AI to create an award-worthy single or album, so long as they’re careful about crediting their respective contributions, Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in an interview with the Associated Press.

“Music that contains AI-created elements is absolutely eligible for entry and for consideration for Grammy nomination. Period,” Mason said. “What’s not going to happen is we are not going to give a Grammy or Grammy nomination to the AI portion.”

Like most awards, the Grammys recognize the various creative contributions that go into making great music within and across genres — songwriting, composition, production, and performance.

In other words, if a singer performs words written by AI, they won’t get credit for songwriting. If the AI does the performing, the human might be credited as a producer.

“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,” Mason said. “We don’t want to see technology replace human creativity. We want to make sure technology is enhancing, embellishing, or additive to human creativity.”

The news comes on the heels of guidance from a consortium of 24 leading colleges in the UK, including Oxford and Cambridge, that permits students and staff to use generative AI in their academic work, so long as they use it ethically.

Mason said the process for determining the rules for this award cycle took about six months to really nail down, and that he expects more than a few entries to include AI elements.

“We’ll see if some of them get nominated or not, but I’m sure there’ll be some that will be submitted,” he said.