Paul McCartney is speaking out about the widely discussed “final” Beatles song that will be released later this year. The song was reimagined using artificial intelligence, McCartney clarified in a recent interview but says it was not created by AI.
The song is speculated to be the late John Lennon’s 1978 composition titled “Now and Then,” The Guardian reported, although the song’s title has not yet been officially confirmed. Speculation surrounding the posthumous release of Lennon’s track circulated on social media last week when McCartney revealed the song would utilise AI in the production process.
He said in a Twitter post on Thursday that he can’t provide too much information surrounding the new song, but confirmed that “nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years.”
McCartney further explained in an interview with BBC Radio 4 that AI had been used only to “extricate” Lennon’s voice from a demo recording. “When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record – it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we just finished it up,” he said, adding, “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. So then we were able to mix the record as you would normally do. It gives you some sort of leeway.”
The inspiration to create the song using AI came after Peter Jackson directed the docuseries The Beatles: Get Back in 2021. Jackson used artificial intelligence in the docuseries to clean up archival footage and audio from the making of The Beatles’ 1970 album Let It Be.
Disdain for AI in the music industry has grown in recent months from streaming services and music groups including Universal Music Group (UMG). The concerns follow a dispute by UMG after the AI-generated song Heart on My Sleeve, which simulated Drake and The Weeknd’s voices, went viral. UMG successfully petitioned to have the song taken down, arguing that it violates general ethics and intellectual property rights within the music industry.
Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, said the streaming service is working to find ways to combat AI songs that replicate artists’ voices. “I think the AI pushback from the copyright industry or labels and media companies, [is] around really important topics and issues like name and likeness, what is an actual copyright, who owns the right to something where you upload something and claim it to be Drake,” Ek told Business Insider. He added, “Those are legitimate concerns.”
McCartney acknowledged that using AI in music is “kind of scary,” but told BBC: “It’s something we’re all sort of tackling at the moment and trying to deal with.”