The latest Grammys tuneup allows eligibility for music featuring artificial intelligence — as long as a human is involved.
The Recording Academy will not rule out songs that were partially created by AI but will only consider the man-made portions of the music for awards, Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason Jr. said.
That means songs written by AI and performed by a person would only be eligible in the ceremony’s performance categories but not for a songwriting award.
“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 told The Associated Press. “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.”
Artificial intelligence continues to gain prominence in the entertainment world. The latest Marvel series, the Samuel L. Jackson-led “Secret Invasion,” features an opening credits sequence created by AI, while Paul McCartney revealed last month that modern technology made it possible to turn a decades-old recording by John Lennon into a never-before-heard Beatles record.
“We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI, so then we could mix the record as you would normally do,” McCartney told BBC Radio 4′s “Today.” “It gives you some sort of leeway. There’s a good side to [artificial intelligence], and then a scary side. We just have to see where that leads.”
The Recording Academy’s stance on AI followed discussions that “really came to a head in the last six months,” Mason told The AP. Mason doesn’t know if the Beatles’ record McCartney described, which is due out later this year, will be eligible at the 2024 Grammys.
“We’ll see what it turns out to be,” Mason said. “But I would imagine from the early descriptions that I’ve heard there would be components of the creation that would be absolutely eligible.”
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