The Recording Academythe body in charge of Grammy Awardshas decided to put a brake on the growing influence of the artificial intelligence (AI) in the music. In a twist highlighting the importance of human creativity, the academy has announced that songs generated entirely by AI will not be considered for the 2024 Grammy Awards.
AI refers to computer programs that can learn and solve problems autonomously. In the field of music, there are AI models that can create entire compositions from scratch.
What music can compete?
To be eligible for a Grammy, a song must not only be good, but must also have been largely created by humans. So while the music generated solely by AI is excludedsongs that incorporate AI-created elements are eligible to participate as long as they meet two key criteria: they must contain significant human authorship, and that authorship must be relevant to the category in which the work falls.
This means that if a song uses AI to generate a melody or lyrics, the creators of the AI ​​do not get credit for Grammy consideration. The credit goes to the human elements that contribute significantly to the song.
The impact of AI on music
In the past year, we have witnessed the progress of AI models such as Riffusion, Google’s MusicLM and Meta’s MusicGen, which can generate entire comps based on text descriptions. However, under these new rules, songs created using only these tools will not be eligible to receive a Grammy.
On the other hand, songs that use AI to process audio, such as remastering songs or extracting vocals from demo recordings to use in a final track, remain in competition.
The limit drawn by the Recording Academy makes us reflect on the definition of creativity and authorship in this new digital era. Could we one day consider an AI as a creative and autonomous entity? For now, the Grammy stage remains reserved primarily for human artists, underscoring that, at the heart of music, human intervention is still deeply valued.
