The Beatles reunite with a little help from AI

The Future. It’s been over 50 years since The Beatles have made music together, but Paul McCartney announced that he’s finished using AI to clean up a recording of Lennon’s vocals for a brand new track. For Beatles fans, this is like Christmas. But the use case may also be a perfect demonstration to the rest of the industry of how AI can be used, not to replace artists, but as a revolutionary tool in bringing back to life lost or damaged work.

Lennon gets back

After Peter Jackson used AI to help Paul McCartney duet with John Lennon during Glastonbury last year, the legendary musician asked for his help in creating one last Fab Four song.

• McCartney told the BBC that they “just finished it up and it’ll be released this year.”
• AI wasn’t used to recreate Lennon’s voice, but instead took an old demo of Lennon’s, isolated his voice from the instruments being played, and made his voice “pure.” 
• McCartney was then able to mix the record like normal.

What song exactly? McCartney’s staying mum, but word is that it’s a 1978 composition called “Now and Then.” The song was one of four that Yoko Ono originally gave to McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr following Lennon’s murder. It was meant to be included in 1995’s Anthology project… but was deemed unreleasable at the time.

While McCarthy says he’s just as amazed and terrified of AI as anyone, in his hands, it’s just another instrument helping to create some very human magic.