AI Creations Barred from Eligibility for Awards at The Grammys

• The Recording Academy is contemplating a rule that would restrict Grammy eligibility to humans only.
• This rule specifically targets music and other recordings generated by Artificial Intelligence.
• AI creations would only be allowed if human creators have made a “meaningful” contribution.

The Recording Academy is introducing several modifications to the Grammy Awards, including a guideline specifying that only human creators can be recipients of the music industry’s most prestigious accolade. The decision is aimed at curbing the incorporation of artificial intelligence into popular music.

The recently released “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Protocols” state, “A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any category.” This rule was established during the board of trustees meeting of the semiannual academy last month. It was determined that works featuring AI elements can be considered, as long as a human creator has made a “meaningful” contribution to the music and/or lyrics.

The new requirements further emphasize, “The human authorship component of the submitted work must be meaningful.”

This development comes shortly after Paul McCartney’s announcement that an upcoming “last Beatles record” was composed using artificial intelligence, extracting John Lennon’s voice from an old demo. McCartney described AI as “kind of scary but exciting,” stating that its potential outcomes remain to be seen.

In addition to the AI rule, the Recording Academy has also implemented swift changes to other categories. To receive a nomination for the album of the year category, a music creator must now account for at least 20% of the work. This includes all credited artists, featured artists, songwriters, producers, engineers, mixers, and mastering engineers. This differs from the decision made in 2021, which allowed anyone involved in the album’s production to receive a nomination.

The number of nominees in the “Big Four” categories, namely best new artist, album of the year, song of the year, and record of the year, has been reduced from 10 to eight.

Previously, the “best music film” category required 50% of the documentary footage to be performance-based. The Recording Academy has now eliminated this requirement to better accommodate the evolving music documentary format, often featuring a combination of verité and archival footage.

Furthermore, eligibility has been extended to “music-focused and individual music videos that collectively create a visual album when packaged and entered together as one cohesive film.” This trend was popularized by Beyoncé’s 2016 film “Lemonade” and has been explored across various genres, such as Halsey’s 2021 “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.”

The Recording Academy has also announced the renaming of certain awards. The best improvised jazz solo award has been changed to best jazz performance, while the best regional Mexican music album category (including Tejano) is now known as the best música Mexicana album (including Tejano). To qualify for the latter category, 50% of the lyrics must be sung in Spanish or the majority of the musical content must reflect a traditional style of Mexican music, such as banda, norteño, corridos, gruperos, mariachi, rancheros, sierreño, jarocho, huasteco, and huapango.

These changes follow the recent addition of three new categories: best pop dance recording, best African music performance, and best alternative jazz album.