AI Is Everywhere, but Awards Go Only to Humans: Harvey Mason Jr. on the Future of the Grammys

AI crept into music unnoticed. Over 18 months, the stance of Grammy Awards CEO Harvey Mason Jr. has shifted from skepticism ("AI will never write Nevermind") to acknowledgment: the technology is now ubiquitous in studios, especially in pop and R&B. The veteran producer cannot recall a single recent session where AI did not help at some stage. The question: how do you distinguish a tool from a replacement?

Music Built for the Algorithm

In studios, AI now touches every step: it generates chords, fills in drums, writes verses, and creates demos and backing vocals. Some artists simply drop in a prompt and get a finished track; others use AI as a real-time "co-writer." Deezer receives more than 50,000 AI songs every day. That is not growth, it is an explosion.

The paradox of music in 2026: everyone uses the tool, no one admits it. The Suno CEO compared it to Ozempic: "Everyone takes it, no one talks about it." Fans do not want to hear about AI (52% of respondents), so even cutting-edge artists hide the tool. The industry runs on a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The Grammys Between Human and Machine

The Recording Academy chose to regulate rather than ban. The rule: human creativity must be "more than de minimis" (more than trivial). In practice this is almost impossible to verify, since there are no AI detectors yet. Committees ask for documentation and trust authors' honesty. The rules themselves are practical, though:

• If AI sang the backing vocals, there is no award for singing, but there may be one for composition
• If a human sings well, even with AI assistance, an award for performance is possible
• If AI created the entire track, no dedicated category exists
• If the human contribution is insufficient, the submission is rejected

The problem is visible from afar: 50,000 songs a day will soon swamp the 24,000 annual entries.

Big Artists Are No Longer Hiding

Diplo said openly: "I take the best voice from AI, I don't need a singer." 50 Cent posts memes with AI versions of his songs. Grimes creates openly. Timbaland released an album with a virtual AI artist under his own brand. Young people are not afraid at all: Gen Z experiments more actively than the guitar generation.

"It's not about whether AI can make good music.

It's about whether it will create a new sound that resonates with audiences," — Harvey Mason Jr.

What This Means

The US needs a federal legislative framework: the No Fakes Act (protecting voice and likeness), the Train Act (access to training data and fair royalties), and the CLEAR Act (transparency). Until they exist, platforms and the Recording Academy are improvising.

Harvey believes people will create new genres and sounds that AI cannot anticipate. The question is whether we give them time and space while lawmakers dawdle.