While it may have seemed like a far-fetched question last year at this time, the rapid growth of artificial intelligence has started raising questions when it comes to all forms of art.
In April, a song created using AI tools, which recreated the voices of Drake and The Weekend, went viral online, sparking curiosity and fear about what the technology could mean for artists.
In response to this, the Grammys have taken precautions to protect artists, outlining new rules ahead of next year’s competition.
KCBS Radio’s Pat Thurston spoke with Jem Aswad, the Executive Music Editor at Variety, to discuss the new rules and what AI could mean for the music industry.
Aswad shared that the new rules they were trying to implement seemed straightforward and were a little funny when he first heard them, but they were also necessary.
“AI is so complicated. The rule they were trying to make was stating that a human has to win a Grammy, which seems obvious,” Aswad said, chuckling.
With many having tried to scam their way into the Grammys before, Aswad said it wouldn’t be hard to imagine some “jerk” trying to have his bot win a Grammy.
“That’s what they were trying to get ahead of, but there were complications in the fact that people were interpreting the initial wording of the rule — which they tried very hard to keep simple — as meaning that a song that used AI in some way would not be eligible,” Aswad said.
However, there’s a big difference between using the technology as a tool to help better a song and using it to create the entirety of the song, even the artists’ voices.
One example that Aswad shared of the clear distinction was the song mentioned at the top of this article, and a new song Paul McCartney is releasing, which uses AI to help “clean up” a recording of John Lennon that he has from the 70s.
“This is no fake John Lennon. This is an old John Lennon recording that had poor audio quality that they’re cleaning up,” Aswad said.
Aswad says that when it comes to the next award season, he thinks this would be “an example of one that would qualify. It’s still made by humans, but enhanced or cleaned up or whatever by AI.”
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