Paul McCartney Is Using AI to Make the 'Final Beatles Record'
The Beatles are coming back.
Paul McCartney revealed that he’s using AI to create what he is calling the “final Beatles record,” in an interview with BBC Radio 4′s Best of Today.
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“We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year,” the 80-year-old musician explained.
He said the song will include vocals from the late John Lennon, who was shot and killed in December 1980 at the age of 40. The AI was used to “extricate” his voice from an old demo.
“It was a demo that John had that we worked on. We were able to take John‘s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we could mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway,” he said.
He explained that Peter Jackson used similar technology in the 2021 documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, which covered the making of the 1970 album Let It Be.
“We were able to use that kind of thing when Peter Jackson did. He could separate them with AI. He could tell the machine, ‘This is a voice, this is a guitar, lose the guitar.’ And he did that. So it has great uses.”
The BBC reports that the song is a 1978 track John Lennon wrote called “Now and Then,” recorded on a boombox shortly before his death. Yoko Ono famously gave the song to Paul on a cassette labeled, “For Paul.”
Another musician is allowing fans to use their voice with AI without penalty.