When Samuel Smith lost much of his ability to play guitar, he found another way to keep making music.

The London-based singer-songwriter has turned to artificial intelligence tools to help him continue writing and recording Americana after Parkinson’s disease largely took away his ability to play. Smith, who was diagnosed with the progressive neurological disorder in 2020, recently released his second album, “The Art of Letting Go.”

For one of the album’s eight tracks, an instrumental piece titled “Horizon,” Smith used platforms that generate music with AI to create demo arrangements he could share with the musicians who recorded the song. He made the demos by humming rough melodies into his phone and uploading the recordings into song generators including Suno and Udio.

Those AI-generated tracks were not used in the final studio version of “Horizon,” Smith said. But tremors, stiffness and fatigue, common symptoms of Parkinson’s, caused his guitar skills to deteriorate during the more than a year he worked on the album.

“So then I’m faced with a question,” Smith, 49, said. “‘Don’t play, don’t be creative, or find a way out, find a route.’ And for me, this was the route.”

Smith released his debut album, “In the Springtime,” in 2023, saying he wanted to give his two sons a way to remember when he could perform and record music himself.

“I’d always written, I’d also played, I always sung,” he said. “And immediately it became clear to me that I was in trouble, that my music was going to be seriously compromised.”

AI music generators are trained on large datasets of recorded music and audio. They analyze patterns in melody, harmony and rhythm, then generate new audio based on prompts or uploaded recordings.

Smith said getting useful demos from those tools often took “50, 100, 150 attempts” and extensive editing “to get something that sounds close to my music.” After humming a song into his phone and uploading the recording, he adds prompts describing instrumentation, mood and style.

“AI is not replacing anything for me,” he said. “It’s unlocking, it’s enabling. It’s allowing me to keep writing. I upload my lyrics; AI doesn’t create my lyrics. I upload my music; AI does not create my music.”

He added: “It then brings it to life in a way that I can play to session players and say, ‘Here, that’s what I’m thinking, that is what I’m hearing.’”

The album was produced by Grammy-winning pianist and producer Matt Rollings, who assembled roots and bluegrass musicians including dobro player Jerry Douglas, banjo player Alison Brown, fiddler Stuart Duncan, guitarist Bryan Sutton, bassist Viktor Krauss and singers Jonatha Brooke and Glen Phillips.

For Smith, singing in a Nashville studio alongside musicians he had admired for decades was “an extraordinary moment.”

Grammy-nominated guitarist Julian Lage performed on the album’s title track and on “Horizon.” Smith said recording “Horizon” became a bittersweet high point because he managed to play a guitar duet with his friend despite the progression of his disease.

“I hadn’t been able to play for months, but I kept telling myself that if I wrote something to take to the studio, perhaps the clouds would part for a few minutes,” Smith said. “That’s what happened. I had a window of about 10 minutes in the studio when my arm freed up. … So in the end, I was able to capture the last breath of my guitar playing.”

AI’s growing role in music has split the industry. Artists and record labels have complained that copyrighted work was used to train the models behind AI-powered music tools. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records sued Suno and Udio in June 2024, though Universal later reached a settlement and partnership deal with Udio and Warner did the same with Suno.

Experts said the same tools could help other people with disabilities or illnesses. Ruaidhri Mannion, a composer, music producer and sonic artist who teaches at Brunel University of London, said technology such as affordable digital recording software “effectively democratized the making of music” in recent decades.

He said AI tools that can generate polished-sounding material from voice or text prompts could help songwriters and musicians communicate ideas and collaborate more easily.

“If these tools are able to enable people to be able to participate with other creative groups and encourage more people to feel confident to be able to reach out to an ensemble or an orchestra or something, then I think that is all for the better,” Mannion said.

But Mannion also said too much reliance on technology could interfere with the trial and error, frustration and synergy that shape a musician’s artistic development.

“What makes a lot of music-making meaningful is the collaborative element,” he said. “There’s a lot of experimentation and development and failure that’s part of musical discovery.”

Some musicians remain opposed. In February, a group of recording artists and activists including singer-songwriter Tift Merritt, David Lowery of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, and ECR Music Group President Blake Morgan published an open letter under the heading “So no to Suno.”

“Many in our community are embracing responsible AI as a tool for creation, and as a means for fans to explore and interact with our artistry. That’s wonderful,” the letter read. “But it’s not the same as creating an environment where AI-generated works sourced from our music are mass distributed to dilute our royalties or, worse yet, reward those actively seeking to commit fraud. Artists need to know the difference.”

Smith said he believes his experience shows how AI could expand creative access if it is developed responsibly.

“My message would be that if these companies want to show they’ve got a place, a role in society, then step up,” Smith said. “Engage with health professionals, engage with music therapists, engage with society and show us what you can do.”

On May 21, Smith worked with the Berklee Music and Health Institute on an event in New York that brought together music industry leaders, researchers and clinicians to examine how music can support people living with neurological conditions. He spoke about living with Parkinson’s and sang again with musicians who played on “The Art of Letting Go.”

“My 4-year-old is probably never going to remember me playing, and it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “But I’ve been able to pull this into something and refuse to be defined by this disease.”

Read more from ABC News.