The Beatles is set to release a new song with the help of AI technology
An announcement that will surprise and delight fans of The Beatles – the iconic band will release a new song this year.
In a groundbreaking revelation, Paul McCartney, one of the two living members of the band, has confirmed the production of a new Beatles record, having used cutting-edge technology to extract Lennon’s voice from an old demo recording.
McCartney was questioned in an interview about the implementation of AI technology in reproducing his youthful voice and even “resurrecting voices” by emulating the late John Lennon and George Harrison.
“We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar,'” McCartney said.
Using this process, McCartney was able to “duet” with Lennon during his recent tour, including their performance at last year’s Glastonbury festival. They also used it to create new surround-sound mixes for The Beatles’ Revolver album, which came out last year.
“When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John [Lennon] had that we worked on. And we’ve just finished it up, it’ll be released this year, ” he said. “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI so that we could mix the record as you would normally do.”
Although McCartney did not specifically mention the title, many think that the new song is “Now and Then,” a composition by Lennon from 1978. This demo, alongside other songs recorded on cassettes labeled “For Paul,” was created shortly before Lennon’s untimely passing in 1980. These tapes were subsequently entrusted to McCartney by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.
“So there’s a good side to it and then a scary side and we’ll just have to see where that leads,” McCartney said. “All of that is kind of scary, but it’s the future,” he said, adding it has great uses. AI is a type of technology that imitates human intelligence. It involves machines learning to carry out various tasks, such as composing music, generating written reports, and creating artwork.
However, AI does face criticism from those who raise concerns about a range of ethical issues associated with this contentious technology. The news arrives at a time when the controversy around AI-generated music is gaining momentum. We’ve seen notable instances where fake tracks of artists like Drake, the Weeknd, and Kanye West have racked up hundreds of thousands of streams before vanishing from streaming services.
This urges us to think about whether or not this cutting-edge technology has the potential to revolutionize the music industry, or if it lacks the emotional depth and human touch present in the music created by human artists.