Sir Paul McCartney's use of artificial intelligence to create the final Beatles record

Sir Paul McCartney has announced that he has used artificial intelligence (AI) to help create what he calls "the final Beatles record". McCartney revealed that the technology was used to "extricate" John Lennon's voice from an old demo so he could complete the song. The song is likely to be Now and Then, a 1978 Lennon composition that was previously considered as a reunion song for the Beatles in 1995 but was abandoned due to technical issues and George Harrison's refusal to work on it.




The AI technology allowed McCartney to separate Lennon's voice from the background noise and other instruments on the demo. McCartney had received the demo from Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, after his death in 1980. The demo was one of several songs on a cassette labelled "For Paul" that Lennon had made shortly before his death. The tracks were largely recorded onto a boombox as the musician sat at a piano in his New York apartment.




The process of using AI in music production involves training computers to recognise different sounds and separate them from each other. In the case of the Beatles demo, dialogue editor Emile de la Rey used AI to recognise the Beatles' voices and separate them from background noises and their own instruments to create "clean" audio. This same process allowed McCartney to "duet" with Lennon on his recent tour, and for new surround sound mixes of the Beatles' Revolver album to be created last year.




McCartney spoke of his excitement at the possibilities of AI in music production, but also expressed concern about its misuse. "It's kind of scary but exciting, because it's the future. We'll just have to see where that leads," he said. He also revealed that he had heard AI-generated tracks of Lennon singing someone else's songs and found it "scary".




The release of the final Beatles record is highly anticipated by fans of the legendary band. The previous two "new" Beatles tracks, Free As A Bird and Real Love, were completed and released in 1995 and 1996, marking the Beatles' first new material in 25 years. The final record, which will feature the completed version of Now and Then, is expected to be released later this year.