The Recording Academy has trimmed the number of entries in the Grammy Awards Big Four; Best New Artist and Album, Song and Record of the year will have only eight nominees instead of 10.

The expansion to 10 lasted only two years. In 2018, the Academy increased the general-field ballot to eight from five.

In addition to the general-field alteration, the Recording Academy announced other category changes and established artificial intelligence protocols, declaring “only human creators are eligible to be submitted for consideration for, nominated for or win a Grammy Award. A work that contains no human authorship is not eligible in any categories.”

The new rule states: A work that features elements of A.I. material (i.e., material generated by the use of artificial intelligence technology) is eligible in applicable categories; however: (1) the human authorship component of the work submitted must be meaningful and more than de minimis; (2) such human authorship component must be relevant to the category in which such work is entered (e.g., if the work is submitted in a songwriting category, there must be meaningful and more than de minimis human authorship in respect to the music and/or lyrics; if the work is submitted in a performance category, there must be meaningful and more than de minimis human authorship in respect to the performance); and (3) the author(s) of any A.I. material incorporated into the work are not eligible to be nominees or Grammy recipients insofar as their contribution to the portion of the work that consists of such A.I. material is concerned. "De minimis" is defined as lacking significance or importance, so minor as to merit disregard.

Other changes include:

In the Album of the Year category, the baseline for earning a nomination has been raised to 20% of the album’s playing time for credited artists, featured artists, songwriters, producers, engineers, mixers and mastering engineers.

The Best Improvised Jazz Solo category has been renamed and redefined as Best Jazz Performance.

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano) has been renamed Best Música Mexicana Album (Including Tejano).

In the Best Music Film category, the previous requirement of 51% performance-based material has been removed. While dramatic feature films and biopics are not eligible, films with fictional elements are.