Grammy Awards allows use of AI in music but there’s a catch

Recording Academy, the institution behind the prestigious Grammy Awards, has allowed the use of artificial intelligence for creating songs that can be considered for the award. However, the academy also clarified that Grammy Award recognizes creative excellence and only songs that have a majority of ‘human authorship’ will be considered for the award. 

The updated rulebook by the academy enumerates 3 conditions in which a song that features elements of artificial intelligence will be considered for the Grammy Award. The three conditions include the human authorship component of the work submitted is meaningful and more than de minimis (lacking significance), the work should be relevant to the relevant category and AI incorporated part of the work is not eligible for a  Grammy Award.

The Academy has also announced a number of other changes, including requiring artists to contribute at least 20 percent to an album in order to qualify for consideration as Album of the Year. Under the previous rules, any producer, songwriter, engineer or performer could earn a nomination for album of the year, even if they only had a minor contribution.

The music industry has been dealing with various challenges with the rise of powerful generative AI-based technologies. Earlier this week, Paul McCartney announced a ‘final Beatles record' which will feature John Lennon’s AI-generated voice.

 Popular AI chatbots ChatGPT and Bard for instance can write songs, poems, code and complete complex mathematical equations with just a single prompt.

Other professions are also concerned about the rise of these AI-based technologies. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike on 2 May over what it called the "existential threat" to their jobs posed by artificial intelligence technologies. Reuters reported that the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) is also planning a similar strike if no deal is reached with the studios.